Federal review panel gives green light to Northern Gateway pipeline
VANCOUVER -- A long-awaited federal panel decision approved Enbridge’s controversial $6.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline, but the project still faces major hurdles, including legal action by First Nations.
The B.C. Liberal government’s five conditions for heavy-oil pipeline support may also prove to be an obstacle.
B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak said there’s little chance the project can meet its five complex conditions during the 180 days the federal government has to make a final decision.
These obstacles raise the spectre of project delays beyond a decision by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, should it give the pipeline the go-ahead.
On Thursday, after a decade of planning by Calgary-based Enbridge, lengthy hearings, testimony from more than 1,000 people in opposition, and technical evidence presented by experts and lawyers, the National Energy Board-led panel said the project could go ahead if Enbridge met 209 conditions.
Those conditions include Enbridge carrying $950 million in spill insurance coverage, putting in place a plan to offset losses in Caribou habitat and putting into effect its promised enhanced tanker safety plan. That plan includes the use of escort tugs, a new advanced radar system, and an increased spill-response system.
The panel said they concluded the project would be in the public interest.
‘Benefits outweigh risks’
“We find that the project’s potential benefits for Canada and Canadians outweigh the potential burdens and risks,” said the three-member panel, led by chairwoman Sheila Leggett. “It is our view that, after mitigation, the likelihood of significant adverse environmental effects resulting from project malfunctions or accidents is very low.”
Enbridge, the oil and pipeline industry, and the B.C. business community immediately welcomed Thursday’s decision, but the reaction from First Nations and environmentalists was also swift. They will continue fighting to stop the 1,177-kilometre pipeline and the 220 tankers, some carrying as much as two million barrels of oil, that would ply the northwest coast annually.
Their major concern has been the risk and effects of a spill on land or in the ocean.
Enbridge claims support from 26 of 48 First Nations in northern B.C. and Alberta, but opposition has been vocal and strong in north-central and coastal B.C.
Nadleh Whut’en Chief Martin Louie of the Yinka Dene Alliance said in an interview from Fraser Lake, west of Prince George, that First Nations have worked within the government process without success and that their options are now limited.
“We don’t have many choices, we either go to court or roadblocks,” he said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll be going to court. I know it’s expensive, but it’s important to save whatever we have, the water and the land, for our children.”
Louie said he expects to conduct talks soon with other First Nations opposed to Enbridge.
“Together, I think we’ll actually be able to do something. We’ll have to start setting up a meeting with all B.C. First Nations, setting up a process on how to deal with this whole issue — legally and underground.”
‘Forced to go to courts’
Added Lake Babine Nation chief Wilf Adam: “The (panel) recommendations have made it clear to us that we are being forced to go to the courts to protect our aboriginal rights.”
Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, had a more moderate response, saying the conditions set out confirm earlier studies showing the ability does not exist to clean up an oil spill.
But even if the federal governments agrees to improvements, it will take years before the technology is sufficient to address environmental concerns, Sterritt said.
And he did not rule out legal action.
Condition 169 lays out the need for research programs into oil-spill cleanup and the varying physical and chemical properties of the oil intended to be shipped, including studies into dispersal and remediation.
“They’ll have to give us the comfort that the technology exists,” Sterritt said. “If the federal government steps up on this, we may have the makings of a relationship.”
While Canada’s highest courts — including the Supreme Court of Canada — have ruled that First Nations do not have a veto on resources projects, governments have a duty to consult and accommodate their aboriginal rights and interests on unresolved land-claim areas.
“The aboriginal people certainly have the capacity to obstruct and delay in law; whether they have the (ability) to stop in law a pipeline, is less clear,” University of B.C. law professor Doug Harris said.
“However, whether they have the capacity to stop a pipeline by other means, crystallizing or building First Nations and broader public opposition to a pipeline, is a different question. And inevitably, I suspect, the strategies will be intertwined.”
B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak said while one of its five conditions — the passing of the environmental review — has been partly met, the four other conditions remain.
Those are creating world-leading marine and land-spill prevention and recovery systems, addressing First Nations rights, and the province receiving a fair share of economic benefits.
Polak said she couldn’t see a way for those conditions to be met in the 180-day federal government decision period. “I would be absolutely shocked if there would be some capacity to make that determination within a year,” Polak told reporters.
She said the province would have to see evidence that Enbridge can, for example, handle spills before determining if the province will support the project. The B.C. Liberal government had earlier rejected the Northern Gateway project, saying Enbridge’s submission to the NEB did not address its environmental concerns.
Social licence vital
While approval for the pipeline falls under federal jurisdiction, Polak said she could not see the federal government or Enbridge moving ahead unless the province’s five conditions were met because there would be no social licence.
She said that discussion with Alberta, whose recent support of B.C.’s conditions is critical, and the federal government will continue on how to meet the conditions.
Enbridge said the 209 conditions were “tough” but could be met, and also provided a basis to build more public support.
Enbridge president and CEO Al Monaco stressed they would be working to meet B.C.’s conditions and trying to “re-engage” First Nations that oppose the project.
He noted that projects rarely get full support, but said he did not want to speculate on what would happen if First Nations on B.C.’s coast and in north-central B.C. continued to oppose the project.
Earlier this month, Harper’s special envoy to First Nations on western energy projects, Douglas Eyford, concluded there “has not been constructive dialogue” with aboriginal communities — something the federal government must take drastic steps to change if it expects to win support for the projects.
“While we are happy with (Thursday’s) announcement, we are not celebrating,” Monaco said.
“The way I think about this, is it’s been a long climb up the mountain so far, we’ve made good progress, but we’ve got more climbing to do and we feel we can get there.”
Opposition NDP leader Adrian Dix said his party will “join with those opposed to Enbridge Northern Gateway to continue the fight” against a project that he said isn’t in B.C.’s interest, and isn’t supported by communities in the region or First Nations.
He called on Premier Christy Clark’s government to maintain its initial position against the project when she unveiled her five conditions for accepting oil pipelines.
Notwithstanding recent polling that suggests opposition to the project waning, Dix said the “substantive evidence” of British Columbia’s position is the overwhelming negative effect that British Columbians gave in their submissions to the panel hearings.
In Kitimat, the terminus of the project, fishing guide Tracey John Hittel said the project is already bringing work to the community of 8,300.
Hittel has been busy working this winter providing boat taxi services for contractors conducting environmental studies for Enbridge.
He said his confidence is increasing the pipeline and tankers can be operated safely.
“They want to do the right thing, and I think it’s going to happen because First Nations and people have put them in the spotlight,” Hittel said.
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