CALGARY – Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says Kinder Morgan Inc. may need to move the proposed terminal for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to win support for the project.
Speaking at a Bloomberg Live conference in New York, Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Notley said it could be better if the terminal were shifted further south rather than following the current pipeline’s route through Burnaby in British Columbia’s lower mainland.
Notley said a port near the Tsawwassen ferry terminal in Delta, B.C., could be a possibility, a suggestion that Vicki Huntington, the independent MLA for Delta South, rejected in a statement.
“It is unfortunate that Premier Notley has made such an ill-considered statement. Delta’s foreshore is a completely inappropriate location for the Kinder Morgan terminus, and would put the most valuable ecological habitat in Canada at risk,” said Huntington.
Kinder Morgan maintains that the Trans Mountain project is an expansion of its existing pipeline and that its current Westridge terminal in Burnaby is the best option from both a financial and environmental perspective.
“Trans Mountain is confident that expanding our existing facilities is the best option, and the one we chose to pursue,” the company wrote in a filing with the National Energy Board last year. “We feel Westridge terminal is the safest location that will also result in the least environmental impact.”
In an email, Trans Mountain Expansion project spokeswoman Ali Hounsell said the company is not currently considering other terminal options and its application is only for an expansion of its current facility.
The Trans Mountain Expansion project would increase capacity on the pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day.