Kinder Morgan can start construction on its Burnaby Mountain tunnel, the National Energy Board announced on Thursday.
As part of its $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, the Texas-based company wants to build a 2.6-kilometre tunnel between its Burnaby Terminal and Westridge Marine Terminal. (Kinder Morgan went with the tunnel option to avoid going through residential neighbourhoods.)
Kinder Morgan filed a request with the NEB on Jan. 25, asking if it could start construction on its Westridge portal and be granted relief from the pre-construction conditions. It gave the NEB until Feb. 15 to decide on the matter.
The company originally asked the NEB for permission last August, but was denied. At the time, the national energy regulator’s oral hearings into the route hadn’t been held, so the NEB ruled the City of Burnaby was “entitled to have the grounds of their opposition on these matters heard.”
According to the Feb. 15 decision, Kinder Morgan said it needs between four to six weeks to clear trees and grade the Westridge site, and that work needs to take place before migratory bird restrictions come into effect on March 26. If crews don’t meet that window, clearing the site would be delayed until August, according to Kinder Morgan. Other work at the Westridge site includes installing a retaining wall.
“The board has examined Trans Mountain’s request and is of the view that the (Westridge) scope of work set out by Trans Mountain is reasonable, given the importance of the approaching migratory bird timing window restrictions set out by Environment and Climate Change Canada,” read the decision.
Greg McDade, a lawyer with the City of Burnaby, said he wasn’t surprised by the NEB’s ruling.
“It continues a long trend of NEB decisions. ... What Trans Mountain asks for, Trans Mountain gets,” he told the NOW. “Burnaby’s frustrated by the continuing refusal of the NEB to really take municipal concerns into account and to put the pipeline company’s interests on a higher plane as if the federal government gets to override the people who actually have to live with the result.”
In an emailed statement, Trans Mountain said it was “pleased” with the decision.
Nearly 56 per cent of the proposed route has been approved by the NEB. No decision has been made on the controversial section through the Brunette River Conservation Area. That decision and others related to the Burnaby segment of the pipeline are expected in late April.
The project, which has started a trade dispute between Alberta and B.C., is expected to be in-service by December 2020 if all goes according to plan.
