Ian Anderson is hopeful that work on twinning the Trans Mountain oil pipeline will be underway by next summer.
The president of Kinder Morgan Canada, which operates the existing pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby and has proposed a second pipeline along most of the same route, spoke to Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce members on Tuesday.
Anderson said that the company proposed the twinning of its pipeline for one basic reason — oil from Alberta is unable to easily get to markets. Oil production in Alberta continues to grow, even with lower oil prices, and “all pipelines are full.”
The shipping of oil by rail and truck is growing, and Anderson said that virtually everyone agrees that pipelines are the safest way to transport crude oil.
“Canada is a nation built off natural resources,” he said. “All commodities are sold on world markets, and the world does not have access to petroleum in Canada. This is what we are trying to solve.”
Anderson said that most people are concerned about safety, both for communities and the environment; the benefits which flow from pipeline construction and operation.
He has found that, in proposing a project of this scale, “you are always going to be in somebody’s political cycle.” The pipeline was a hot topic in the 2013 B.C. election, and was also an issue in municipal elections last year. It is an issue for First Nations chiefs and councillors in their elections; it was an issue in the recent Alberta election and it will be an issue in the October federal election.
The National Energy Board hearings into the pipeline proposal are nearing the final home stretch, with the NEB expected to make a recommendation in January, and a decision in April.
He said the company has worked closely with First Nations all along the route and has signed 27 agreements with various First Nations already.
Economic benefits of more than $100 million will come to them as a result of those agreements.
First Nations groups will be critical partners in setting up response groups to deal with any land-based spills, he said.
Anderson made reference to a study reported on in The Times on June 12, which stated that five Lower Mainland municipalities (including Langley Township) would face $93 million in additional costs in regards to their own infrastructure.
“That’s true. It will happen,” he said. “They will have to work around our infrastructure, just as we have to work around theirs.”
However, he said those five municipalities will receive $950 million in property tax from the pipeline and other Kinder Morgan infrastructure, such as the marine terminal in Burnaby and facilities in Abbotsford, over the next 50 years.
He said the company has 19 kilometres of right of way in Langley Township. A final route for the second pipeline has not been set, but what is most likely is that it will veer away from the current pipeline near Fort Langley, and go through the Township-owned Redwoods Golf Course to the CN rail tracks, and then west into Surrey.
The existing pipeline runs through urban areas of Walnut Grove and industrial lands in North Langley, and building a second pipeline there would be difficult.
Most of the rest of the alignment in Langley is in rural areas.