Ottawa -- Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands) expressed dismay at the B.C. Court of Appeal’s ruling on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
"I am extremely disappointed that the court did not recognize the right of B.C. to regulate environmental risks, as a separate area from the NEB's overall regulatory authority,” said Ms. May. “However, I am very pleased that the B.C. government is appealing. I hope that environment minister George Heyman will initiate a provincial environmental review of the project. Under former Premier Clark, no review was undertaken. The failure of the NEB review creates an opportunity for B.C. to properly assess the project's impacts."
“We are in a climate emergency. Continuing to fund the development of pipelines that will prevent us from reaching our climate commitments is short sighted and dangerous for future generations. Any dilbit spill incurred in any one of the 800 water crossings, from the B.C.-Alberta border to the Burnaby port or in marine waters, cannot be cleaned up. Dilbit will separate, with bitumen sinking and the toxic dilutent moving as a gas through the air. There is no way to clean up dilbit in fresh or salt water,” concluded Ms. May.
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