Activists Say No to Enbridge Pipeline Certificate Extension
A dozen environmental activists gathered outside the constituency office of Environment Minister George Heyman on Sunday to demand that he not extend a project's environmental certificate of the Enbridge gas pipeline.
A dozen environmental activists protested outside the constituency office of Environment Minister George Heyman on Sunday demanding that the government not approve the Westcoast Connector Gas Pipeline Project's environmental assessment certificate extension application. Transmission from Enbridge.
The project has been stalled for almost a decade. Dressed as zombies and stained with fake blood, a dozen activists demanded that he not be dug up.
In front of the constituency office of the Minister of the Environment , George Heyman, they performed a choreography borrowed from Michael Jackson to the notes of the song Thriller.
The pipeline hasn't moved in 10 years, says Kai Nagata, the communications director of Dogwood, the environmental group behind the protest. It's a zombie project, meaning it's something that's been shelved for years.
Kai Nagata underlines that this public intervention is in order to draw the attention of the public and the government to the content of the future decision, but also to send a clear message: The time for debate is over. #x27;approving new pipelines.
The project plans to develop a natural gas transmission network between northeastern British Columbia and the Prince Rupert area. It includes 851 km to 872 km of pipeline ranging in diameter from 912 mm to 1219 mm and up to five compressor stations.
A certificate of The environmental assessment was originally issued in 2014 and construction of the project was scheduled to begin in 2019.
A five-year extension was also granted for the project, but the necessary certificate for the continuation of the project will expire in November 2024 if construction has not started.
The company is requesting a second extension due to delays caused by the pandemic and delays in obtaining permits from the provincial government, an environment ministry spokesperson said by email.
The department says the environmental assessment office is currently analyzing the application, including consultation with First Nations.
In order for the certificate extension application to be approved, it must be determined by the government that there is or will be an emergency or other comparable circumstance that justify the extension, and that it is in the public interest.
According to Dogwood, this pipeline is the largest ever proposed in the province and it will export every day more fossil gas than BC can currently produce.
It raises the same fears as other pipelines, points out Kai Nagata. And in a climate crisis, we must turn to renewable energy and other public investments, apart from the expansion of the oil industry. .
No decision has been made yet, but activists remain perplexed.
Zombies don' They don't have a brain, so we can't say what's going to happen, Kai Nagata quips.
If the legislation allows only one extension of an environmental assessment certificate, the granting of a second extension does not #x27;is not unprecedented.
The Ministry of the Environment has already granted two other extensions in the past to different projects through a legislative amendment.< /p>
