Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance

Please send your letter of comments to the JRP, you can use the form provider here to do so

We also have some Oral Statement Online Workshops provided by the Process Advisory Team. The next one will be on 15 May 2012. The session times are 10:00-11:00 a.m. PT (11:00-12:00 p.m. MT) and 7:00-8:00 p.m. PT (8:00-9:00 p.m. MT).

For more details on the session, how to register and dates for future workshops as they are scheduled, please contact The Gateway Process Advisor

Some other links of interest: NEB Presentation for preparing your oral presentation

Joint Review Panel in Prince George: July 9 – 13, 2012

@ Prince George Civic Plaza, July 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th (2012): Starting at 1:00 p.m.
@ Prince George Civic Plaza, July 13th 2012 (as required): Starting @ 9:00 a.m.

If you have signed up to make an oral presentation to the JRP, you need to register here.

Also the events page has been updated with some upcoming films for March! Check it out.

Prince George Municipal Election

The Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance posed the following questions to electoral candidates in the Prince George municipal election:

1. What is your position on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project?
2. What alternatives do you propose for sustainable economic development in Prince George and Northern BC?

Open the attached document to see their responses.

Enbridge Inc. wants to build a pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands to the port of Kitimat, B.C.  Load the highly corrosive bitumen/condensate slurry (which is more toxic than crude oil) into huge oil tankers and sail these tankers through the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. It’s not a question of IF but WHEN an accident will happen.

The Enbridge Pipeline Joint Review hearings will be taking place in Prince George in January 2012 and the deadline to register is October 6^th 2011. Organizers from the Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance will be available to assist with presentation preparations in the fall, but for now, more information can be found on the WCEL website.

Make your voice heard!

E-mail or write to a Member of Parliament outlining your views on current issues facing the ecosystems and wildlife of the Great Bear Rainforest. Contact list here.

Great Bear Wild Photo Exhibit:

The Rotunda Gallery and UNBC Arts Council in conjunction with Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance and the International League of Conservation Photographers presents the Great Bear Wild Photo Exhibit. This extensive exhibit features some of the same photographs that appear in the August 2011 National Geographic Article, “Pipeline Through Paradise”. Photos will be exhibited from September 1 to September 30 at the UNBC Rotunda Gallery and Nancy O’s. Regular gallery hours are Monday to Friday, from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm.

Great Bear Wild Film Series:

The following films will be presented in conjunction with the Great Bear Wild Photo Exhibit. Sept 20: End:Civ; Oct 4: Awakening the Skeena, with Ali Howard as our guest; Oct 11: On the Line. Films free or by donation in the Weldwood Theatre (7-238), UNBC; 7-8:30 PM. 

By Nathan Vanderklippe

Retrieved from: www.theglobeandmail.com

Published: June 9, 2011 7:21 PM
Last Updated: June 9, 2011 7:34PM

Enbridge Inc. (ENB-T30.42—-%) is struggling to win aboriginal support for its Northern Gateway project, despite major financial promises and efforts to curry support through sponsoring golf tournaments, powwows and rodeos, regulatory documents filed by the company show.

The $5.5-billion pipeline, designed to transport Alberta crude to the B.C. coast for export to Asia and California, has garnered major industry support, but substantial opposition from first nations that believe it will endanger the environment.

Enbridge has pledged some $1-billion in financial sweeteners to first nations, including a 10-per-cent equity stake in the project and promises of hiring guarantees and hundreds of millions in spending on aboriginal businesses. It has promised economic benefits to any B.C. group with reserve land within 80 kilometres of the proposed right of way.

But documents filed with the National Energy Board by Enbridge, which is seeking regulatory approval for the project, show that a surprising number of groups do not appear interested in the offer, which was first made public in February.

Enbridge has presented its benefits-package offer to 35 groups and first nations. As of March 31, another 13 had not received the benefits package. Many, including a series of coastal nations, have outright refused to meet with the company.

And even some of those who initially agreed to look over the offer now say they aren’t interested. Take the Tl’azt’en Nation. It is listed as having received the benefits package. But its chief, Ralph Pierre, says bluntly that his people have “rejected it and refused to even go through the package.”

The Enbridge documents say the Tl’azt’en have invited Enbridge to speak with leaders about financial specifics in the package. But Mr. Pierre said the package is “still sitting right here in front of me right now and I’m just not interested in opening it, to tell you the truth.”

Discerning how many first nations actually support Northern Gateway has been challenging, in part because Enbridge has declined to provide numbers. But the document suggests the tally is low.

Two groups – the Macleod Lake Indian Band and the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation – have requested that the company relocate pumping stations onto their land, as a way of increasing the benefits that could flow their way.

But when Enbridge held an all-expenses paid weekend in Banff earlier this year for a “Best Practices in Aboriginal Business and Economic Development” conference, only five nations were represented. Enbridge spokesman Paul Stanway says the company invited only half a dozen whose “fit was established based on the focus of the Banff program and corresponding identified aspirations of invitees.”

Critics, however, took the short list – which included several nations known to be pipeline supporters, as well as the Tl’azt’en, where a leadership change has eroded support – as evidence that Enbridge has few on its side.

“What it indicates to me is that, after six years of trying, they’ve got five nations showing up to these things. So for love or money, they can’t get solid support,” said Eric Swanson, a campaigner for the Dogwood Initiative, a Victoria-based environmental lobby group.

Enbridge, however, says first nations interest in business opportunities are substantial. An aboriginal business summit held in early 2010 brought out representatives of 42 communities along the pipeline route.

“In March, 2011, Northern Gateway polled some of the aboriginal groups to determine the level of interest for a second aboriginal business summit,” the company says in the filings. “All aboriginal groups contacted expressed a strong interest.”

61 First Nations from the Fraser River watershed came together yesterday to declare they would protect the Fraser River watershed from Enbridge Northern Gateway proposed oil pipeline & other tar sands related projects.
See www.savethefraser.ca.

Ottawa ignoring safety
By Arthur Williams – Prince George Free Press

Retrieved from: www.bclocalnew.com

Published: July 08, 2010 8:00 AM
Updated: July 08, 2010 2:29 PM

The proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project has drawn heavy criticism from politicians, environmentalists, First Nations and competitors.

On June 21 federal Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff weighed into the debate by calling for a moratorium on oil tankers along B.C.’s coast.

“The Harper Conservatives refuse to recognize the tanker moratorium off the B.C. coast, and have taken no steps to protect our marine ecosystems from harmful oil spills,” Ignatieff said in a written statement. “The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a grim reminder that we must always be vigilant. While the Conservative government has left our coastal communities and oceans vulnerable, the Liberal Party is proposing innovative, decisive action that will make Canada a world leader in protecting our oceans and coastal communities.”

In his speech, delivered in Victoria, Ignatieff stated clearly that his party opposes the development of a tanker terminal in Kitimat.

Local environmental group Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance formed to oppose the development of the Northern Gateway Project. Spokesman Josh DeLeenheer said the pipeline project will have little long-term benefit for the region, while exposing it to the risk of an environmental disaster.

“We really feel this project doesn’t have social license. This project doesn’t really represent any kind of diversification,” he said. “We’re not against economic development, but we want to see it move in a different direction.”

Other opportunities like bioenergy and logistics will create new, sustainable jobs without the same degree of risk, he said.

The ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an example of what could happen if a tanker were to run aground in the Douglas Channel.

“You really get a sense of the tragedy of it. You really start to see the scope of what the damage can be to tourism, fisheries, the environment,” he said. “Obviously there are differences between deep-sea drilling and tankers. But once the oil hits the water, it’s the same. When you’re talking about the very large crude carriers that can carry two million barrels, it could be devastating.”

On June 2 Amnesty International called on B.C. and Canada to not allow the project to go ahead without, “the free, prior and informed consent of the affected First Nations.”

The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council and Wet’suwet’en First Nation are directly in the path of the pipeline and say they will not support it. In addition, 26 other First Nations groups downstream of the 773 water crossings have voiced their opposition to the project.

Carrier Sekani Tribal Council vice-chief Terry Teegee said the council has been clear from the beginning they oppose the project.

First Nations have a clear human right to appropriate consultation on natural resources projects in their traditional territories, Teegee said.

“That’s what we’ve been advocating to the province and Canada,” he said. “They need to be looking at the cumulative impacts of development.”

Instead of looking at the pipeline in isolation, there needs to be an examination of the total human impact on the ecosystem and river systems, he said.

First Nations groups have been shut out during the development of major infrastructure projects in the past and unless there is a change it appears that is being repeated with the Enbridge project, he said.

Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Canada has filed a letter with the National Energy Board saying the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is redundant.

“We didn’t see there was an adequate review of alternatives to the project, which is required under the process,” Kinder Morgan communications director Andrew Galarnyk said. “The application needs to have backing consumer support, and it doesn’t.”

Kinder Morgan Canada currently operates the Trans Mountain Pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby. In 2008 Kinder Morgan completed upgrades to the 50-year-old pipeline to increase capacity from 225,000 barrels per day to 300,000 barrels per day.

Using the existing right of way Kinder Morgan could increase its capacity by another 400,000 barrels per day.

“We see our project as being less environmentally impacting,” Galarnyk said. “We have an existing right of way with pipe in the ground now. We have existing dock facilities in Burnaby.”

Unlike the Northern Gateway Pipeline Project, Kinder Morgan could increase its capacity incrementally as demand warrants, he said.

“We will not file our application until we have that support.”

Sea to Sands Challenges IPG’s Stand on Enbridge
By 250 News

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 04:29 PM

retrieved from www.opinion250.com

Prince George, B.C. – The Board of Directors of Initiatives Prince George has been sent a letter by the Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance.

The Alliance wants to know why IPG has repeatedly been on the record supporting the Enbridge pipeline project and if the Board will be directing IPG to make a submission to the Joint Review panel which has started its review of the pipeline application. If the Board is to make a decision on making such a submission, Sea to Sands wants to know if there will be an opportunity for public input before that decision is made.

The Alliance is also questioning IPG’s authority to take a positive stand on the project “We question the extent to which City Council members ( our voted representatives) have had input into this decision about whether or not Initiatives Prince George should be coming out in favour of the Enbridge Northern Gateway project.”

The project would see two lines built between Bruderheim Alberta and Kitimat. One line would carry oil to a terminal in Kitimat for shipment to markets in the U.S and Asia, the other would carry condensate back to Bruderheim.

With the B.P. disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, there is dwindling public confidence that such a pipeline and a marine operation would be safe from accidents and disastrous spills. Enbridge has promised multi hulled ships, special tug boats and new gps technology and radar off the coast to minimize the potential for marine spills.

Sea to Sands says it has presented a 600 signature petition to Prince George Mayor Dan Rogers calling on him to step down from the Enbridge Gateway Alliance. Mayor Rogers recently told his fellow Directors on the Regional District of Fraser Fort George that being a member of the Alliance’s community group doesn’t mean you support the project, only that you are in a position to better hear the project’s plans and offer ideas and concerns.

Ignatieff supports oil tanker ban off B.C. coast
Chris Wilson
Vancouver — From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail Retrieved from
Published on Monday, Jun. 21, 2010 8:52PM EDT

Last updated on Tuesday, Jun. 22, 2010 6:04AM EDT

The federal Liberals want to ban oil supertankers from British Columbia’s northwestern coast, a promise that would halt the building of a proposed $5.5-billion oil sands pipeline from Alberta through northern B.C.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s announcement that a future Liberal government would legislate a ban on the tankers pits his party against one of Canada’s largest companies, Enbridge Inc.

Last month, the Calgary oil pipeline firm formally applied to the National Energy Board to build the pipeline. The Northern Gateway would move 525,000 barrels a day from the oil sands to Kitimat for export to Asia, but the plan to ban tanker traffic around Haida Gwaii would quash the plan.

“We know that those are dangerous waters. We all know what oil does when oil spills,” Vancouver Quadra Liberal MP Joyce Murray said in an interview. “We believe there’s no guarantee there won’t be a spill.”

Mr. Ignatieff wasn’t available for an interview, an aide said after the Liberal leader announced the new policy at an event on Monday in Victoria. In a statement, the Liberal leader declared: “The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a grim reminder that we must always be vigilant.”

Enbridge said its Gateway pipeline would bring much-needed jobs and investment to northern British Columbia and be built and operated to stringent environmental and safety standards. But because the pipeline proposal is before a quasi-judicial hearing at the National Energy Board, Enbridge didn’t speak specifically about the Liberals’ talk of a tanker ban.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate to speculate on these types of political policy statements,” Enbridge spokesman Alan Roth said.

The oil pipeline is opposed by 28 first nations along the route, according to environmental group Dogwood Initiative, and a poll conducted for Dogwood in May found that 80 per cent of 500 people surveyed supported a ban on tanker traffic on the B.C. coast.

Enbridge is lobbying Canadians to support Northern Gateway, placing full-page ads in newspapers that promote a predicted $81-billion in direct and indirect government revenues over 30 years.

Ms. Murray indicated the Liberals are against large supertankers and not the many other ships that sail B.C. waters. The Liberals don’t oppose the smaller tankers carrying a light oil called condensate that already ply the choppy waters of Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound around Haida Gwaii.

The Liberals also did not take a stand on the oil tankers that sail past downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park taking crude from a facility in Burnaby, a terminus of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta.

Two New Democrat MPs in the Lower Mainland – Fin Donnelly of New Westminster-Coquitlam and Don Davies of Vancouver-Kingsway – already have private members bills before Parliament to legislate a tanker ban in the same area around Haida Gwaii.

Growing support in Parliament buoyed Dogwood Initiative, which has worked for years against Gateway. A spokesman for the group said that if the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois support the NDP bills, a ban could be legislated quickly.

“We’re on the road to victory,” said Eric Swanson of Dogwood. “We could have a legislated tanker ban before the next election.”

The Liberals said they would formalize a tanker moratorium enacted in 1972. Enbridge disputes this moratorium, citing a 2005 letter by then Liberal transport minister Jean Lapierre to Liberal David Anderson. The letter noted a ban on tanker traffic from Alaska to the southern United States, but added that tankers originating in ports such as Kitimat weren’t banned.

Separate from the tanker question, a moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas on B.C.’s offshore remains. The provincial B.C. Liberal government tried early last decade to get Ottawa to lift the drilling ban, but gave up in 2005 and recently reaffirmed there are no plans to open up the coast to drilling.

The following from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. 2 days after Enbridge filed, the Haisla and Gitga’at Nations hosted their Feast of the Nations at Kitamaat Village, a fantastic & very well-attended feast. All First Nations of north western BC made statements of solidarity to stand together against this project, and they are supported by a growing number of well-organized ENGOs and concerned northern BC, BC & Canadian residents.

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Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency Bulletin

This weekly bulletin includes links to all news releases issued by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, announcements issued by the Minister of the Environment with respect to federal environmental assessment, and opportunities for public comment and availability of participant funding. Please note that some announcements are issued by departments other than the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. Refer to specific announcements for appropriate contact information.

Announcements during the past seven days:

May 27, 2010 – Northern Gateway Pipeline Project – Joint Review Panel Begins Assessment of Recently Filed Northern Gateway Pipeline Application
With today’s filing of the Northern Gateway Pipeline Project application, the Joint Review Panel (the Panel) will begin its assessment of the application.

The Panel will review the proposed project under both the National Energy Board Act and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. It will assess the application according to the Joint Review Panel Agreement and Terms of Reference.

The Panel will first review the application to determine if it contains sufficient information to initiate the joint review process and issue a Hearing Order. The Hearing Order will outline the various ways people can participate in the review process, deadlines for key steps of the process and a draft List of Issues which will be considered for the project. Information sessions and panel sessions will be held in communities close to the proposed project. All of these sessions will be public and advertised in local media. A complete schedule will be posted on the National Energy Board’s website and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s website.

www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca