The P.M. abandoned his pledge to really study Kinder Morgan

Elizabeth May

Mr. Speaker, I was somewhat horrified to hear the hon. parliamentary secretary refer to the National Energy Board review of Kinder Morgan as “a thorough review”.

At a campaign stop in August 2015, when the Prime Minister stopped in Esquimalt, he was asked by Kai Nagata, a former journalist, whether the commitment to a thorough review would apply to Kinder Morgan as well. I will quote the Prime Minister, who replied, “Yes. Yes. It applies to existing projects, existing pipelines as well.” When pressed, he said, “No, they’re not going to approve it in January because we’re going to change the government and that process has to be redone.”

That is what British Columbians heard from the Prime Minister.

I was an intervenor in the National Energy Board process on Kinder Morgan. As someone who appeared as a lawyer before the National Energy Board, going back to 1981, I know what it is like to appear before the National Energy Board when it is doing the job of a credible regulator. I know when the process is a sham that any government should be ashamed to support.

I ask the parliamentary secretary this. Who should we believe, now that the Prime Minister has abandoned the pledge to really study Kinder Morgan? Why should we accept the flawed process rejected by the Prime Minister on the campaign trail as now, magically, a thorough review?

Kim Rudd – Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources

Mr. Speaker, in January 2016, we put in interim principles, and the minister also created a ministerial advisory panel to hear from those people along the TMX route who felt that they had not had an opportunity to contribute to that process. I believe that there were over 20,000 email submissions. There were 44 panels. There was a much more robust opportunity for Canadians to contribute.

With such experience and such passion, I hope the member will be helping to inform the process as we go through Parliament on this very important piece of legislation.