I recently wrote about the drama that today鈥檚 pipeline projects seem to guarantee. This coming week wraps up the current 颅episode in the 2021 season of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
You have until midnight March 1 to 颅provide feedback on the sa国际传媒 颅Environmental Assessment Office鈥檚 Draft Provincial 颅Reconsideration Report for the project, which includes the office鈥檚 proposed changes to the project鈥檚 Environmental Assessment Certificate conditions.
If you think this is your chance to 颅lambast the Trans Mountain project, think again. Only feedback on a few aspects of the 颅project is being sought, and only that 颅feedback will be considered.
Those few aspects are limited to the 颅proposed changes to project conditions related to marine shipping. These 颅conditions were not part of the National Energy Board report originally submitted as part of the provincial environmental assessment 颅process, but are part of the NEB鈥檚 more recent Reconsideration Report.
More specifically, comment is sought on those proposed changes that the sa国际传媒 颅government actually has jurisdiction over and that Trans Mountain, the project 颅proponent, has control over. This rules out anything that falls under, for example, Transport sa国际传媒鈥檚, the Coast Guard鈥檚, 颅shipping companies鈥� or international marine regulators鈥� responsibilities.
In particular, feedback is sought on the Environmental Assessment Office鈥檚 颅proposed amendment to one of the original 37 environmental assessment-related 颅conditions the Trans Mountain must meet and on one proposed new condition.
The amendment would be to include 鈥減otentially affected coastal local 颅governments鈥� in the list of groups that Trans Mountain must consult, involve and report out to when it plans and undertakes research into the long-term effects and behaviour of bitumen in sea water or in coastal areas.
The proposed new condition would require Trans Mountain to look into and 颅prepare a report describing the risks to human health of bitumen spills from 颅tankers, and during response and monitoring of such spills.
The public-engagement process doesn鈥檛 consider whether the project should be built. Like it or not, that decision has already been made and has been upheld by the courts. Nor will the process consider any aspect of the pipeline, fuel-storage facilities, export facility or environmental or socioeconomic effects related to pipeline construction or operation, or anything else outside of the process scope.
So if you want to rant, this wouldn鈥檛 be the best forum. Nor will profanity, aggression or abuse help your cause.
The sa国际传媒 Environmental Assessment office will take the (relevant) feedback into account when it revises the 颅reconsideration report and advises the sa国际传媒 cabinet 颅ministers responsible for deciding whether to add or amend conditions to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project鈥檚 颅environmental assessment certificate.
This process is the result of a long, convoluted series of stops and starts. When the federal government first approved the expansion project in November 2016, legal challenges ensued. Despite that, in early 2017, the sa国际传媒 government of the time issued a provincial environmental assessment 颅certificate for the project that was based on the NEB鈥檚 assessment, as set out in its 2016 project report.
However, in 2018, the legal challenges paid off. The Federal Court of Appeal 颅overturned the federal approval, forcing work on the project to be suspended.
One of the reasons given for the ruling was that, in the court鈥檚 view, the NEB had unjustifiably excluded the potential impacts of project-related marine shipping from the scope of the project鈥檚 review under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The court directed the NEB to 颅reconsider parts of its 2016 project report and to address how the increase in tanker 颅traffic on the coast that would result from the expanded pipeline capacity could affect the province鈥檚 marine ecosystems and species at risk, such as southern resident killer whales.
The 2019 reconsideration report was the result. Based on it, the federal government re-approved the project with 156 conditions, and the sa国际传媒 government, in turn, approved an amended environmental assessment 颅certificate.
More legal challenges ensued, but the sa国际传媒 Court of Appeal upheld most aspects of the provincial environmental 颅assessment process, thereby confirming that the 颅project鈥檚 certificate is valid. However, the court concluded that the ministers of 颅Environment and Climate Change 颅Strategy and of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources must consider whether 颅implications for the certificate arise from the reconsideration report.
The public comment period that opened Jan. 15 and ends March 1 is part of that 颅consideration.
