#279 of 279 articles from the Special Report:
Trans Mountain
Charlene Aleck, a member of Tsleil-Waututh Nation, on the nation s reserve on April 30, 2021. Photo by Marc Fawcett-Atkinson
Canada’s energy regulator has a message for Tsleil-Waututh Nation: We don’t believe you.
In April, the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) said it was “not persuaded” by the nation s legal argument it had a constitutionally protected right to communicate with companies on its territories about its own rights and laws.
The regulator expressed this skepticism at the same time as it granted a request made by the government-owned Trans Mountain oil pipeline to keep the names of its insurance companies a secret, based on the company’s allegation that not doing so could lead to losses.
One of B.C.’s smallest birds is responsible for a four-month stop-work order on one of the federal government’s largest projects, the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Anna’s hummingbirds are protected by Canada’s Migratory Bird Act, which says any work that could negatively affect the population has to be halted until nesting season is over. The order, issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada, was put forward after conservation officers saw the company felling a tree with an active hummingbird nest in it earlier this month.
The pipeline, originally built in the 1950s, was taken over by Texas’ Kinder Morgan in 2015, which then made plans to triple the exports of the existing operation, upping production to up to 890,000 barrels each day flowing from Alberta to the coast of B.C. The federal government purchased the pipeline in 2018 for $4.5 billion. The Trans Mountain expansion (TMX) is projected to cost $12.6 billion.
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By BRAELA KWANMarch 16, 2021 GMT
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Members of Canada’s First Nations and their allies are mounting last-ditch challenges to two massive fossil fuel pipelines that already are under construction and have strong government backing.
In campaigns reminiscent of the Standing Rock protests in the U.S. Great Plains, the anti-pipeline actions in Canada’s far West feature acts of civil disobedience including blockading roads and construction sites, and coordinated campaigns against banks and underwriters that are financing the pipelines. Dozens of protesters have been arrested. But they say they are determined to continue their resistance.
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“We have to protect the land and the water no matter what. Our survival depends on it,” said Mike McKenzie, an anti-pipeline activist who is a member of the Secwepemc Nation. He said he had to move off his ancestral territory to escape harassment by local law enforcement.