Warrior Up: Thousands Protest Northern Gateway Pipeline in Victoria

The Northern Gateway Pipeline

Image courtesy of Defend Our Coast

As Enbridge’s website explains, The Northern Gateway Pipeline is a proposal to construct twin petroleum pipelines along the 1,170 kilometres between Brudenheim (located just north of the city of Edmonton) and Kitimat, B.C. One pipeline would carry 525,000 barrels per day of Alberta tar sands crude oil to a new oil tanker port at Kitimat. The other would carry condensate – a lighter petroleum product used to dilute bitumen –for use in transporting the tar sands crude oil.

Opponents of the project fear the environmental impact of a pipeline leak or the damage to the coastline from a tanker spill. For most of the protestors at the rally it is not a question of if there will be a spill but when. One of the issues raised was the route. If constructed, the Northern Gateway pipeline must cross the rugged, mountainous terrain of the Northern Rockies and the Coastal Mountains of B.C. Metal pipelines age and corrode over time, making them susceptible to ruptures. Pipelines are at risk of breakage due to natural events such as landslides or rockslides both of which pose dangers in this proposed route.

Another issue regarding the proposed route is the some 1,000 streams and rivers the pipeline would cross, including the sensitive salmon-spawning habitat in the upper Fraser, Skeena, and Kitimat watersheds.

It would also cross the territories of more than 50 First Nations groups. Defend our Coast’s website currently states that the Northern Gateway Pipeline is opposed by nine of the Coastal First Nations as well as many of the island First Nations along the pipeline route. In March 2010, the Coastal First Nations signed the Fraser River Declaration stating that, “tar sands oil will not be allowed to transit our traditional lands and waters.”

A Joint Review Panel (J.R.P.) led by the National Energy Board and Canadian Environmental Agency will review Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Project. The J.R.P. is a quasi-judicial process that will involve hearings in communities along the pipeline route and on the B.C. coast. The three panel members – Sheila Leggett, Hans Matthews and Kenneth Bateman – have until the end of the year to complete a report.

When asked if he felt the panel fairly represents the needs of the First Nations communities, Weyler answered:

No. The system is designed and operated to bias the decisions in favor of industry. The tar sands itself may be the most destructive single industrial enterprise in the history of human civilization, and the carbon alone in the tar sands, if exploited and released, will send Earth’s atmosphere into runaway global heating, so a fair environmental review would not remotely approve the pipelines that will allow this crisis to unfold. Clearly the First Nations have not been fairly heard, since both the Yinka Dene Alliance, Coastal First Nations, and individual First Nations – totaling some 161 Nations – have signed or supported the Fraser River Declaration. This alone should end the discussion. The First Nations have clearly spoken as a unified voice.