photo by Zack Embree www.zackembree.com
• Consider this question: why did citizens hike up Burnaby Mountain each day to be arrested if Kinder Morgan is simply conducting technical feasibility studies for a pipeline?
Why are First Nations and municipalities spending precious resources fighting the National Energy Board in the courts?
Why did former BC Hydro CEO Marc Eliesen quit the federal National Energy Board pipeline review, calling it a “farce”?
This is the growing crisis of public confidence. Polling shows 7 in 10 British Columbians no longer trust Ottawa to deliver a fair decision in the public interest. Simply put, we know the answer from the federal cabinet is already a “yes”.
The government of Quebec announced it will do its own provincial review of the Energy East pipeline. British Columbia can do it too.
Fortunately British Columbia has jurisdiction over this pipeline. Like every province, we have the power to hold an independent review.
The Union of BC Municipalities supports withdrawing BC from the equivalency agreement. So do both provincial opposition parties and respected industry experts like Marc Eliesen. This was an agreement signed by the BC Liberals that opted the province out of our own review process in favor of relying only on a federal government review. All we have to do is give Ottawa 30 days notice and we could be free to chart our own course.
What we need is the political will. We’ve created a simple petition at BCReview.ca calling on Premier Clark to set up a pipeline review that the public can trust. A review that has the option of delivering a “no”.
Please sign our new petition to Premier Christy Clark today and share it with as many people as you can. Thank you!
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Taken from a letter from Kai Nagata, Energy and Democracy Director at Dogwood Initiative in Victoria. Tel. 250-370-9930 www.dogwoodinitiative.org
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