BC’s Environment minister says the province is taking a wait and see approach to the Kinder Morgan trans-mountain pipeline expansion.
Terry Lake says at the moment all they can do is wait because there really aren’t many concrete details.
“Well the Kinder Morgan proposal is at this stage not really a proposal in that it hasn’t gone in front of a panel or an environmental assessment they are in the very preliminary stages what they are doing is going out and talking to communities about the potential for increasing the capacity on that pipeline thathas been in place for over 60 years.”
Lake says the company seems to be doing things the right way by first going to communities to explain their expansion plans.
He says the Kinder Morgan heavy oil pipeline does have to meet the same demands as Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal.
“What we have said is any new heavy oil pipeline proposal through British Columbia must meet the five conditions that the Premier has set out and that goes for Northern Gateway, it goes for Kinder Morgan, any other heavy oil pipeline proposal must meet those five conditions to protect the interests of British Columbians.”
Environmentalists, civic politicians, and citizens groups recently met in Burnaby to express their concerns with the pipeline’s route through densely packed areas of Kamloops, Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Langley, and Burnaby.
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