In my last entry, I let you down.
My apologies.
I never did give you a definitive sense of where your three NPA councillors stand on Kinder Morgan’s plan to build another pipeline from Alberta to Burrard Inlet. Coun. Elizabeth Ball said she would get back to me with an answer when she had one, and Coun. Melissa De Genova answered my question with more questions.
Here’s a taste:
“So,” she said, “do I support the project? In some ways, yes. Do I have reservations about other parts of the project? Yes, I certainly do. So I don’t think it’s that easy.”
The missing voice from my last piece was that of Coun. George Affleck, who was unable to return my call for the very reason many others in this city have been unable to report to work: He had a man cold.
But good news – he’s back on his feet and was on those very feet when I recently stopped him in the lobby outside the council chambers and began my interrogation. Off the top, he told me the NPA doesn’t have a position on whether it supports Kinder Morgan’s pipeline project.
Not this again, I thought, political merry-go-rounds make me dizzy.
But then he did something that his NPA colleagues have yet to do – he took a firm position on the project, saying his views aligned with that of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who told Canadians in November that the pipeline will be good for the economy while the government’s marine protection plan will ensure the environment is protected.
“If I thought this project was unsafe for the B.C. coast, I would reject it,” the prime minister said famously in giving the green light to the $6.8-billion project, which almost triples the number of barrels of oil shipped per day from 300,000 to 890,000.
Trudeau’s Vancouver buddy, Mayor Gregor Robertson, is of course opposed to the project. As is the rest of his Vision colleagues and Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr. And you must know by now that Premier Christy Clark gave the project the thumbs-up.
Back to Affleck…
“I’ve said this in the chamber before,” he said of his support for the project. “I’ve actually pointed to the [city’s crest] that says, ‘by sea and land we prosper, Mr. Mayor.’”
Hmmm, I must have missed that.
Me: So that I’m clear, you support the project?
Affleck: “I think it’s required. I think that the process we’ve gone through and the stipulations that the province and the federal government have put in for environmental protection…”
He didn’t finish his thought, jumping to another about how the NPA should have a conversation about bitumen. I didn’t quite understand the reason for that conversation since bitumen is what is expected to flow down the pipeline.
So I asked him whether he had a concern about a planned seven-fold increase in tanker traffic in and around Vancouver waters. Affleck claimed only six tankers went through those waters between January and October 2016 (still checking on that one).
“I understand the fear and I share that, and we absolutely have to be super cautious with this tanker traffic,” he said. “We live in Canada. Perhaps Vancouverites are not supportive of pipelines. But we also have to think of our whole country, and our role and how do we prosper. Resources are our number-one industry in this country.”
He went on to slam Vision Vancouver and accused the mayor and his colleagues of having no understanding of the Port of Vancouver’s importance to the city, and that it was the city’s biggest employer and biggest taxpayer.
“I feel that the mayor has no respect for what it means to Vancouver city, if we’re talking about the waterways in our city. Pipelines? It’s a tough one. Apparently, according to polls, Vancouverites don’t like them. But I have to look at the big picture for us and the prosperity.”
mhowell@vancourier.com
@Howellings
