A message from John Carruthers – President, Enbridge Northern Gateway
A message from John Carruthers – President, Enbridge Northern Gateway
For over two years now, you’ve met with us to learn about the Northern Gateway Project; to hear about the world class safety measures planned; and to understand what the economic benefits would be when a $5.5 billion investment is made in the North.
Our communications materials highlight pipeline integrity, marine safety and incident response measures. But on July 26th, those assurances were challenged when 19,500 barrels of oil were spilled near our pump station in Marshall, Michigan. That leak is among the most serious incidents in Enbridge’s long history. We sincerely regret that we disrupted people’s lives and created a mess on properties, public places and local waterways.
Comments invited on Northern Gateway Project application and regulatory review process
The Joint Review Panel (“JRP”) for the Northern Gateway Pipeline Project issued a Procedural Direction July 5, 2010, asking people interested in the project to comment on specific issues related to the application and the upcoming hearing process. Topics on which the JRP would like to hear comments:
1. The draft List of Issues
2. Additional information which Northern Gateway should be required to file: and
3. Location(s) for the oral hearing.
The JRP is an independent body, mandated by the Minister of the Environment and the National Energy Board. The Panel will assess the environmental effects of the proposed project and review the application under both the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the National Energy Board Act.
A copy of the Procedural Direction can be retrieved from the NEB repository under file number A25582, by accessing the following link:
For more information please contact 1-888-434-0533
It’s a moratorium on northern B.C. jobs
Northern Gateway project would bring significant benefits to B.C.
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Sat Jun 26 2010
Section: Comment
Byline: John Carruthers
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff recently announced in Victoria that if elected, the federal Liberals would “formalize the existing B.C. crude oil tanker moratorium” to prevent crude oil tanker traffic to the port of Kitimat.
Contrary to the Liberal assertion, no such moratorium exists. This was confirmed in writing by the then-federal Liberal government in 2005. There has been a moratorium on oil and gas drilling, not tankers, and a tanker exclusion zone that applies only to loaded tankers travelling from Alaska.
Oil tankers enter today at the port of Vancouver and at Kitimat, and have done so safely for decades. In 2009, about 25 million barrels of oil were moved by tankers from Vancouver.
Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline project would safely export oil from Kitimat to new markets in Southeast Asia and California, and contribute significantly to local, regional and provincial economies.
The Liberal ban would, in effect, be a moratorium not just on existing business, but also on new jobs and investment that are so needed in B.C.’s northern communities.
Enbridge supports protecting Canada’s oceans and coastal communities, but singling out B.C.’s north coast is not sound policy. Why differentiate Kitimat from the entire West Coast or ports in Quebec or Atlantic Canada where tankers safely move hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil every day?
Ignatieff’s new policy plan also contradicts Liberal interest in trade with Asia-Pacific nations.
Ignatieff ‘s China confusion
National Post
Fri Jun 25 2010
Page: A10
Section: Editorial
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s obsession with China is at war with itself. While Mr. Ignatieff accuses the Prime Minister of ignorance regarding China, he seems not to understand how his Liberals’ environmental policies are at odds with China’s trade goals with Canada.
Speaking Tuesday in Vancouver, Mr. Ignatieff announced he would make his first official visit to China in July. He then took the opportunity to sing the tired Liberal refrain that Stephen Harper took too long to make his own first visit to China and, as a result, put in jeopardy Canada’s relationship with the economic superpower.
The irony is that in the same news conference, Mr. Ignatieff talked about how much he was looking forward to meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday in Ottawa, a visit made possible by Mr. Harper’s diplomatic efforts during his official visit to China last December.
So which will it be, Mr. Ignatieff: Mr. Harper has so badly misplayed our relationship with China that you now feel the need to go there and smooth relations? Or, Mr. Harper has done such a good job that when China’s President comes here, he even takes time to meet with an opposition leader whose standings are so low in polls that his own party is rumbling about seeing him out of office?
You can’t have it both ways.
Full tankers and empty promises
The federal Liberal leader’s pledge to keep vessels off the B.C. coast does nothing to address demand. It would also send crude prices soaring.
By Craig McInnes, Vancouver Sun
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff isn’t the only politician in the world using the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico to grease his political ambitions.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and accept that he has been shocked into action by the grim images of oil still pouring out of the impotent blowout preventer, the oil-covered birds and tar balls soiling white sand beaches that provide powerful ammunition against the expansion of exploration, pipelines and tankers off the British Columbia coast.
Opportunist or not, his arguments come in the political version of what educators call a “teachable moment,” when something remarkable grabs our attention and opens us up to a new way of looking at things.
The continuing blowout in the Gulf is certainly one of those remarkable events. It’s now climbing the top 10 list of worst spills in the world. President Barack Obama has now called it perhaps the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history.
That’s an arguable point, even if it becomes the largest oil spill. Other nominees I’ve seen in the past few days for man-made disasters include the farming techniques that led to the dust bowl of the 1930s, the mowing down of the forests and the wiping out of the buffalo herds that used to roam the great plains.
Whatever the ultimate ranking, the unfolding horror story in the Gulf still provides a compelling argument for the kind of promises made by Ignatieff in Victoria this week.
The federal Liberal leader vowed that, given the chance, a Liberal government would formalize a ban on tanker traffic off the B.C. coast. Or more precisely, a prohibition against the kind of expansion of tanker traffic that would be needed to support the proposed pipeline and terminal in the deepwater port in Kitimat. He would not put a halt to the existing traffic, which includes smaller tankers into Kitimat and shipments in and out of the Port of Vancouver every year.
Northern Gateway Alliance objects to Federal Liberals “shutting out” the North
Association Chair says Ignatieff wants to “close the door on economic diversification and growth opportunities for this region”
PRINCE GEORGE, BC, June 23 /CNW/ – “Michael Ignatieff clearly has no regard for the people of northern BC or their best interests, and he has effectively closed the door on much-needed economic diversification and growth opportunities for this region”, said Colin Kinsley, Chair of the Northern Gateway Alliance.
Kinsley was reacting to Monday’s announcement that the federal Liberals under Michael Ignatieff would, if elected, prevent crude oil tanker traffic to and from the Port of Kitimat.
“Mr. Ignatieff has elected to vote against the North, against much-needed jobs and against equal opportunities for the people of Northern British Columbia and Alberta,” said Kinsley. “By targeting the Port of Kitimat with a proposed marine transportation ban, the Liberals are saying it is ok for the Ports of Vancouver, Quebec City, and eastern Canadian ports to reap the benefits of marine trade and commerce, but not for Kitimat and other northern communities. His proposed moratorium on tanker traffic using the Port of Kitimat is nothing more than politicking for Liberal votes in the Lower Mainland and urban Canada at the expense of the new jobs and investment that are so needed in BC’s northern communities.”
Don Martin: Fear behind Ignatieff’s oil tanker policy
While oil and water never mix, it’s now creating attractive political chemistry. With that Louisiana oil gusher blackening beaches, Michael Ignatieff’s pledge this week to ban oil tankers from the northern B.C. coast would appear to be a political no-brainer. But the Liberal leader is sacrificing practical realities for political expediency.
While oil tankers now prowl Canada’s east and west coasts and roll up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal without the public giving it a second thought, Ignatieff’s plan would banish tankers from a safer port in northern B.C. and kill much-needed jobs and investment in the region.
Ignatieff’s vow, should he ever become prime minister, singles out for a ban one vital link — between the oil sands and China’s voracious energy thirst — that would give the oil sands a competitive alternative to an America that views the resource as dirty energy to be priced at a discount.
The Northern Gateway proposal, a 1,200-kilometre, $5.5-billion pipeline linking Edmonton to the west coast by 2016, would send 525,000 barrels a day to markets like China, which has an ownership stake in the oil sands.
IPG Supports Enbridge
June 2, 2010
by Tim McEwan CEO, Initiatives Prince George
Project Regulatory Application
Enbridge Northern Gateway Project submitted its project application to the National Energy Board on May 27, 2010. The application will be assessed by a Joint Review Panel established by the Minister of the Environment and the National Energy Board. The regulatory filing information is available here.
Enbridge Files Regulatory Application for Northern Gateway Pipeline Project
Filing marks the official commencement of the regulatory review process
CALGARY, Alberta, May 27, 2010 - Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) (NYSE:ENB) (Enbridge) announced today that it has filed an application with the National Energy Board for the construction and operation of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline which involves a new twin pipeline system between Edmonton, Alberta and a new marine terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia to export petroleum and import condensate.
“The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project will open important new markets for Canadian crude oil; it will create jobs and a substantial long-term boost to our nation’s economy as well as the communities through which it will pass,” said Patrick D. Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer, Enbridge Inc. “With an estimated capital cost of $5.5 billion, Northern Gateway is expected to create thousands of job opportunities for regional residents throughout project construction and operations, while providing approximately $36 million of local property taxes on an annual basis.”
The eight-volume regulatory application provides a comprehensive overview of the proposed project and its benefits and will be assessed by a Joint Review Panel recently established by the Minister of the Environment and the National Energy Board. The application covers all aspects of the proposed project including the environmental and socio-economic assessment, environmental protection and risk management measures, engineering, construction and operations, public consultation and Aboriginal engagement, marine transportation and project economics.
