On Friday, in its final written submission to the federal review panel, the British Columbia government said it cannot support Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project as it currently stands because the company has failed to address environmental concerns about oil spills on land and at sea.
The B.C. government, however, said its submission on Friday is not a death knell for the project, but sets a “high bar” for it to proceed.
The Harper government said Friday it will wait for the National Energy Board-Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency joint review panel’s report — due by the end of the year — before deciding how to proceed. The federal government, as it awaits the report, is investing millions of dollars to improve marine and pipeline safety.
“An independent, comprehensive, science-based evaluation of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is currently underway. We will review the independent Joint Review Panel’s recommendation when it is published by December,” Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said in a statement.
“We have been clear: resource development will not proceed unless it is safe for Canadians and safe for the environment. That is why, for our part, we are moving forward with our plans to further enhance marine and pipeline safety and to engage with First Nations on West Coast energy infrastructure.”
Diversifying Canada’s energy export markets remains a “critical priority” for the government, he added.
Heritage Minister James Moore, the senior Conservative in B.C., said the federal government would not intercede in the debate over the Northern Gateway pipeline.
“We believe in waiting for the environmental assessment to come back and letting science drive this,” Moore said. “The provincial government put forward their standards for any pipeline to be built in the province of B.C., and we agree with those. We agree with the province and the need to protect our natural environment and to balance that with our responsibility to grow the Canadian economy.”
But Moore also hinted the federal government may not care if the Enbridge route is rejected by the province.
“We’ll see what Enbridge’s response is going forward. But there are many pathways for Canadian resources to get out of the country and we will see if Enbridge will look for other opportunities.”
The Harper government, in legislative changes adopted last year, has given the federal cabinet the final say on whether to approve major pipeline projects in the “national interest” — including the Northern Gateway — stripping the power from the National Energy Board.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has maintained that science, not politics, will ultimately determine whether the Northern Gateway pipeline proceeds.
“The federal government awaits the recommendation of the Joint Review Panel and will base our decision on science,” Harper’s director of communications, Andrew MacDougall, said Friday in a statement.
“The objective of diversifying our export markets for energy remains a critical priority for our government.”
The federal Conservative government has set a Dec. 31, 2013 deadline for the joint review panel examining the pipeline to submit its environmental assessment and report on the project.
The 1,172-kilometre Gateway pipeline would transport oilsands crude from northern Alberta to the port of Kitimat, B.C., where the product would be loaded onto supertankers and shipped to markets in Asia and elsewhere.
The federal NDP says the Conservative government risks losing all its 21 seats in British Columbia if it tries to proceed with the project without the province’s support.
NDP natural resources critic Peter Julian, a British Columbia MP, says the province’s decision is a recognition that thousands of fisheries and tourism jobs in northern B.C. could be threatened by the pipeline and any potential oil spill.
“There is widespread opposition in British Columbia from an environmental and economic standpoint,” Julian said.
“They (Conservatives) have already gutted the process but they do have to listen to British Columbians. If they try to ram this down the throats of British Columbians, there will be widespread opposition, no doubt.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Jason Fekete
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