Elizabeth May
Mr. Speaker, through you, I address my question to the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley.
This is my first chance to take the floor in the debate tonight. With the indulgence of my friend from Skeena—Bulkley Valley, let me first say that the Minister of Natural Resources misspoke when he said that the Kinder Morgan pipeline has been delivering dilbit for 30 years. It has not. It used to be the Trans Mountain pipeline, which delivered a completely different product, one destined for four refineries in the Lower Mainland. There is only one refinery left. It cannot process dilbit. Dilbit has only been transferred since Kinder Morgan, a creation of Enron, Enron Liquid Pipelines Company renamed, bought Trans Mountain. Shipping dilbit is a relatively new phenomenon. It is true that they ship dilbit out right now. That product is not landlocked. It can get to Asia, though Asia does not want to buy it very much.
Let me put to the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley this question. We know that there are 157 conditions right now from the National Energy Board, and Kinder Morgan has not completed more than about 100 of them. We know that there is a consolidated court case that challenges the legality of the permits. We know that there are approximately 1,100 provincial permits the B.C. government is processing, but 600 have not been requested yet. Can the member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley imagine any way in which this project could go ahead by May 31, given the work Kinder Morgan is supposed to do?
Nathan Cullen – Member for Skeena-Bulkley Valley
Mr. Speaker, I have heard the Minister of Natural Resources, and the Prime Minister before, laud the conditions that are attached to the approval of this project. Many of these conditions, like how they clean up a spill, are not actually followed through by the National Energy Board, as was reported in an audit by our environment commissioner. He studied many of these pipelines, asking how many of the conditions the government attaches and tells Canadians not to worry about are actually followed through on. A little less than half the conditions are actually ever followed. Anyone who is placing bets on the Liberals’ assurance on these conditions should know that, given recent history, about half of them will never be implemented or used by the company.