No need for NEB: Brooks

Photo: transmountain.com

BC Conservative leadership contender Dan Brooks says there's no need for National Energy Board involvement with his "made in B.C." pipeline solution.

Brooks says one of the strongest arguments behind his proposal for a new Crown corporation to build and operate a crude-oil pipeline across British Columbia is that no approval is required from the NEB.

“The National Energy Board does not have jurisdiction over a pipeline entirely within our province’s borders,” he said.

“My proposal for a made in B.C. pipeline ensures that we can avoid the costly bureaucratic delays – and political interference – associated with National Energy Board applications. Construction of a new pipeline to get Canadian oil to Asian markets can be accomplished relatively quickly.”

NEB hearings into Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway Pipeline project and Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline expansion took years, he said. But neither project, despite being found to be in the national economic interest, is yet underway.

“Kinder Morgan’s application to the National Energy Board – which began in May 2013, and was concluded in May 2016 – required three years of analysis and public hearings,” said Brooks.

“And then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promptly ordered yet another round of redundant hearings to give pipeline opponents more time to complain, thereby delaying construction even further.”

Brooks said Northern Gateway took even longer to get through the federal bureaucracy. The process began in 2006, and then a Joint Review Panel was appointed in 2010 to represent both the NEB and Ottawa’s Environment department. Approval was granted in June 2014.

“Justin Trudeau greeted that positive decision with a declaration that he would overturn it, and then the Federal Court of Appeal did exactly that in June,” said Brooks.

“We have to minimize Ottawa’s involvement if Canada’s oil ever is going to get to Asian markets," he said.