The man behind the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion plan met with Burnaby businesses Tuesday to talk about the project.
Ian Anderson, president of Kinder Morgan Canada, was the Burnaby Board of Trade’s guest for a small, round-table meeting that was closed to media.
Afterwards, Anderson told the NOW he talked about the issues the project faces, including routing decisions, emergency- and marine-response capabilities and local impacts and opportunities.
“I gave them assurances that all of those issues are real and present in our minds and we’re working hard to manage them and mitigate impacts,” Anderson said.
There were about 12 to 15 people in the meeting, including representatives from educational institutions, board of trade staff, Burnaby businesses and others, according to Anderson.
Anderson also reviewed some of the changes Kinder Morgan has made because of public feedback.
“As you know, we’ve considered the Burnaby Mountain route in response to public concerns about being in the highway and roadways within Westridge,” he said. “We are going to double the number of valves than we originally planned. We’re going to use more thicker walled pipe in urban areas than we originally planned, those are all part of that journey we’ve been on.”
However, Anderson noted the City of Burnaby is still not talking to Kinder Morgan.
“None of these conversations, as you know, have happened with Burnaby council and city staff. That’s one of my challenges, that we’ve yet to have those similar kinds of conversations with Burnaby,” Anderson added.
As for feedback from the audience, Anderson said companies wanted to know how to get involved in some of the business opportunities associated with the pipeline expansion proposal.
Paul Holden, president of the Burnaby Board of Trade, attended the meeting and echoed Anderson’s account of the talk, saying they covered employment and procurement opportunities and questions from the attendees. Holden said there were also questions about the National Energy Board process and pipeline safety, but he declined to name the businesses that attended.
As for why media were not allowed to attend, Holden said, “We felt that it was in the interest of having the open conversation that the media wouldn’t be invited on this occasion. But that’s not uncommon, we do have roundtable events where that happens.”
