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CALGARY — A new report says Kinder Morgan is overplaying the economic benefits, and downplaying the costs of its proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Public Policy Research teamed with The Goodman Group Ltd., a California-based consulting firm, to examine the estimated impacts of the project.

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The authors dispute Kinder Morgan’s claim that 36,000 person-years of employment would be created in British Columbia during the project’s development.

More like 12,000, tops, they say — which is less than 0.2% of total provincial employment.

We were very surprised the company has exaggerated the short-term jobs

“We correctly anticipated that the benefits from the pipeline would be small in the context of the overall B.C. economy and mostly short-term,” said Ian Goodman, president of the Goodman Group.

“But we were very surprised that the company has exaggerated the short-term jobs associated with building the pipeline by a factor of three.”