Pipeline company should pay

Photo: CTV

A Vancouver-area city is asking the National Energy Board to hand Kinder Morgan a bill that could be worth more than $2 million for policing and cleanup costs after pipeline work was targeted by protesters last month.

Environmental activists set up a makeshift encampment in a conservation area on Burnaby Mountain, east of Vancouver, in an attempt to block crews from conducting drilling and survey work related to its proposal to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline.

The company obtained a court injunction ordering protesters to clear two drilling sites. Dozens of officers with the RCMP and other police agencies were on the scene for over a week, arresting more than 100 people by the time the work was finished.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, who has been a vocal opponent of the planned pipeline expansion, has publicly said the company, not taxpayers, should be on the hook for policing costs.

The city wrote the National Energy Board a letter earlier this month, indicating it plans to seek an order from the board forcing Kinder Morgan to pay for the entire police bill — which it estimates to be between $1 million and $2 million — as well as any work required to restore the conservation area where the work occurred.

"When Trans Mountain went to B.C. Supreme Court for an injunction against the public, and sought and received authority to engage a police presence in the conservation area ... it did so knowing the likely consequences," says the city's letter, dated Dec. 5.

"The presence of many police officers ... has resulted in further damage to the conservation area at great public expense, much of which will be paid by Burnaby. Large areas of the conservation area were fenced off, and the public road was fully closed. More areas of the park were trampled."

The letter says the company was required by the energy board to do "as little damage as possible" during its work. The city, however, says there was extensive damage that went "well beyond" what the company had initially promised.

The city's letter does not include a final tally of the cleanup costs.