Enbridge brought its Northern Gateway Pipeline project team to Burns Lake Oct. 1 to fulfill a commitment of discussing with community members what they are doing to build a safe pipeline.
The team assembled a display room of eight different stations at the Tweedsmuir Park Rod and Gun Club with each representing a draft working plan formed to spark an engagement with Aboriginal groups and stakeholders. Unfortunately, they booked the evening on the same night as the Valdy and Nadina Mackie Jackson concert and most people had other plans.
“We heard [people were busy] several times before tonight’s session,” said Donny van Dyk, Manager of Coastal Aboriginal and Community Relations with Northern Gateway Project. “Myself and some of my colleagues from the Northern Gateway team, we actually canvassed local coffee shops, the mall as well as knocked on some doors to personally invite folks here in Burns Lake out to the session and when we ran into people they said ‘sorry, I’m heading out to the concert.'”
Those music lovers missed a presentation on Northern Gateway Project conditions and plans relevant and irrelevant to this community as well as a chance to voice their opinion on how Enbridge is going to build the pipeline in a safe way. The eight stations at the session represented a commitment by Northern Gateway to discuss with affected Aboriginal groups and stakeholders the phase one engagement plans of the project that are required by the National Energy Board to be submitted.
“Each station represents a draft working plan in which our experts are sharing information with community members and then community members have the opportunity to provide feedback and input,” said van Dyk. “That feedback and input will then be included in our draft planning process and ultimately lead to a better plan that we put before the National Energy Board for each one of the separate sets of conditions.”
The eight conditions spoken to at the presentation included the pipeline environmental effects monitoring program, the marine environmental effects monitoring program, the marine mammal protection plan, the construction marine mammal protection plan, the traditional land use investigation plan, the construction environmental protection and management plan, the wetlands functional assessment plan and the socio-economic effects monitoring plan.
Van Dyk said the Burns Lake stop is one of many the team is making this fall to communities from the pipeline’s proposed beginning in Bruderheim, Alberta, to Kitimat, B.C. He said the group has mostly completed their tour through communities in North-Western B.C. as part of their phase one discussion, but if anyone who missed the chance of catching them wants more information or a say on the project they can look them up on their website.
“Some of our draft plans are on gatewayfacts.ca at the moment,” said van Dyk. “There are links there regarding the consultation process that is taking place and the engagement roadmap.”
