One of the local stakeholders involved in Kinder Morgan Canada’s plans to expand its Trans Mountain Pipeline has dropped its concerns involving the project.
In a letter posted recently online but written in October, Chief Alice McKay wrote that the Matsqui First Nation was consenting to the pipeline application, “subject to the terms and conditions of a mutual benefits agreement signed with Trans Mountain.”
Details of the agreement were not disclosed, and McKay didn’t return a News request for comment.
The band had previously submitted an impact assessment that found a spill from the pipeline – which crosses a corner of the band’s land, but runs through 38 kilometres of its traditional territory – would have a dramatic economic, cultural and psychological effect on members. But the report also suggested that locating the pipeline off of the reserve wouldn’t change those impacts.
