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Friday, January 11, 2013

Omnibus Bills, Pipelines, First Nations

Chief Justin George of the  Tsleil-Waututh Nation connects a few of the dots leading from omnibus budget bills C38 and C45 to Kinder Morgan's expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.  Most interesting bit from the news release:

[Trans Mountain] is a brand new pipeline following a new route; the existing pipeline was built without First Nations consent; and there have been 78 spills since 1951. 

My contention has been that the success of the Trans Mountain expansion project will be a function of its ability to keep to the same right-of-way as the old line.  Kinder Morgan has said it will do this where possible.  However, the  Tsleil-Waututh Nation's complaint, when added to similar complaints from other FNs and Burnaby-Douglas MP Kennedy Stewart, suggests that the company  may have to expropriate or otherwise acquire more land than its been letting on.  That suggests that a heckuva  fight is in the offing.

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