Adaptation Community, Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Water Governance
Ministerial Panel Report on Trans Mountain Expansion
November 9, 2016
Adaptation Community, Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Water Governance
November 9, 2016
On November 3rd, the Ministerial Panel for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project released its final report to the public.
This report represents the culmination of months of public hearings on the proposed Trans Mountain Expansion project and what Canadians felt was missed in the National Energy Board (NEB) review. Three key experts led the panel in collecting public input, organizing the report, and forming conclusions about how the Trans Mountain Expansion project could go ahead. The report is based on 44 public meetings attended by more than 2,400 Canadians, of whom 650 made direct presentations to the panel.
The report documents how changing social and economic conditions affect the proposed project. It highlights changing oil prices, climate change, First Nations rights, and social license as key factors in determining public sentiment about the project. Other issues raised by presenters, and documented in the report, include: marine impacts, effects of diluted bitumen, risks of oil transportation, and public confidence in regulatory processes. Indigenous issues was also a major theme of public input.
The report concludes with key questions for policymakers. These six high-level questions are discussed in-depth in the report, and they are:
The report notes that climate change, in particular, was an issue raised at every public meeting.
Desmog Canada reports that environmental organizations are pleased with the outcome. “‘Surprisingly, I think it did do its job,’ says Patrick DeRochie, climate and energy program manager at Environmental Defence. ‘It’s kind of the icing on the cake of a fatally flawed Kinder Morgan review process. It shows the social, environmental and economic rationale for approving this pipeline simply doesn’t exist. The only viable option coming from this report is the rejection of Kinder Morgan by the federal government.'”
The report concludes:
“The issues raised by the Trans Mountain Pipeline proposal are among the most controversial in the country, perhaps in the world, today: the rights of Indigenous peoples, the future of fossil fuel development in the face of climate change, and the health of a marine environment already burdened by a century of cumulative effects. There are matters of public safety and environmental sustainability, overlaid against economic need in a province where a once-strong resource sector is currently under severe strain. We, as the Ministerial Panel, hope that we have done well by the many thousands of people who provided input in this process — in helping to craft a set of questions that may bring clarity in the decisions to come.”