It isn’t over yet. Native group wins right to appeal March decision to reverse the pipe line flow. Line runs right through rural Burlington.

News 100 redBy Staff

July 20, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

The latest challenge to Enbridge’s plans to expand the flow in its Sarnia to Montreal pipeline and begin shipping diluted bitumen from the Alberta tar sands took place at a dig on a portion of the Line 9 pipeline in North Dumfries Thursday morning.

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Line 9 runs right through rural Burlington; a break would leak highly toxic oil into creeks and streams that run through the city into Lake Ontario.

There was a similar action earlier this week in Etobicoke.  The Chippewas of the Thames First Nation has won the right to appeal the March National Energy Board decision that had seemed to clear the way for the controversial project.

And in a further blow to Enbridge’s potential bitumen export plans through an ocean port in Maine, massive public intervention has convinced the South Portland city council to block tar sands passage through that city. On July 9, the council voted 6-1 to “prohibit loading crude oil, including tar sands, in bulk onto marine tank vessels and would block construction or expansion of terminals and other facilities for that purpose” at a meeting attended by nearly 500 people. A ratification vote is scheduled for July 21.

Burlington hasn’t been quite that aggressive – it isn’t in our DNA, but we did send a letter to Enbridge telling them we weren’t very happy and the city did organize a meeting at which residents were able to talk directly to Enbridge staff.  Line 9 runs right through rural Burlington and while it hasn’t sprung a leak yet – or at least not one the public knows about – ther is a concern that many feel is just not being addressed.

“This isn’t just about line 9 – or Northern Gateway. Should there ever be a break in the line it will have an immediate and direct impact on the creeks that run from the Escarpment to Lake Ontario.”

In a statement the protesters said:  “We know that there is a lot of public debate about oil pipelines because we are beginning to see that the old ways of doing business are no longer acceptable because of issues like global climate change and species extinction.”

In an echo of Enbridge’s actions in Hamilton and elsewhere along Line 9, it has been revealed that Trans Canada has given $30,000 to one of the Ontario towns in the path of its pipeline in return for a promise that the town will not comment on Energy East. Enbridge handed out monies along Line 9 to municipal governments and police forces including nearly $45,000 to the Hamilton police department.

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Line 9 crossing on Walkers \Line – also happens to be a favourite spot for the Regional Police to hide their speed traps – talk about toxic!

The grant to Mattawa came with a written agreement that stated “the Town of Mattawa will not publicly comment on TransCanada’s operations or business projects.  It has never been revealed if there were conditions attached to the Hamilton grants from Enbridge, but the Hamilton 350 Committee is continuing to seek provincial intervention to block the police from accepting corporate donations.

Background links:

Did Burlington get bought off?

Listen to the evidence.

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1 comment to It isn’t over yet. Native group wins right to appeal March decision to reverse the pipe line flow. Line runs right through rural Burlington.

  • Rant

    A RANT

    We sit here, arm-chair critics, with a high standard of living, a weakened local economy, and a provincial government doing a high-wire financial act. We have choices – become globally competitive again by either lowering our standard of living or increasing our productivity. We cannot continue to borrow
    money.

    Fortunately for us, the Athabaska oil sands and related oil industry manufacturing and service industries and employment across the country have been booming; and yes,they are creating enormous wealth for governments and corporate profits – exports create wealth, lesson 101 of economic development.

    This ongoing resource boom has given us some breathing-room to retool our Ontario economy in a number of key sectors, including expanded resource development like the Ring-of-Fire in Northern Ontario.

    Yet, here we sit, criticizing a modification to an existing pipeline – such hysteria. I get out of my car at the Burlington Mall and I look north at all the oil tanker railroad cars being pulled through Burlington heading east, and I shake my head. If only more of that could be shipped by pipeline – the safety statistics are irrefutable. Maybe you want to see this stuff moving by truck?

    None of us are clean on this – we drive cars, burn fuels, etc, -the obvious stuff: but also, we have our personal pensions or investment portfolios that depend upon the success of the oil industry. I am particularly irked by critical retired civil servants with defined pension plans – look at the percentage of your funds in Alberta oil. In fact, we would not have a Toronto Stock Exchange if it were not for the resource extraction industry – an activity where Canadian companies and our Australian corporate cousins are particularly apt on a global scale.

    There has to be a more balanced approach to our problem- solving and wealth generation. We have had a comfortable pew for too long. The oil and gas industry is not going away, no matter which government we vote for in the next federal election.

    We may again have a cold winter coming our way, but I will feel a lot more comfortable than the Eastern and Western European countries looking down the barrel of Putin’s pipelines.