OTTAWA — The broken relationship between the City of Burnaby and Kinder Morgan Canada, the company behind a proposed $5.8 billion oil pipeline through the community, hit another low Thursday with legal threats and duelling tree experts. In the latest chapter in Kinder Morgan’s fight to do tests for a possible pipeline route in the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area, the company asked the National Energy Board to issue an order against Burnaby’s “inappropriate” steps to block drilling. The city accuses the company of breaking municipal laws by cutting down trees earlier this week — the company says seven unhealthy red alders while the city says 13, five of them healthy. Mayor Derek Corrigan, who called the company’s actions “appalling,” predicts his city’s bylaws will eventually trump federal legislation. “Even though this pipeline has not been approved, Kinder Morgan thinks nothing of illegally entering our park, causing irreparable harm to the ecosystem and defying the laws our citizens have put in place,” he said Thursday. === VIEW MORE PHOTOS HERE, or if you're using a mobile app, tap the story image and swipe. === Kinder Morgan Canada President Ian Anderson, in an interview with a National Post columnist published Thursday, also predicted a court showdown. And he openly fretted about the not-in-my-back-yard resistance his project is facing from communities, First Nations, and environmentalists. “We see it in British Columbia like nowhere else,” said Anderson, adding he will “never” give up the effort to get regulatory and public approval to complete the project. It is aimed at tripling the flow of the existing Kinder Morgan line to 890,000 barrels a day to carry Alberta oilsands bitumen to Burnaby for loading onto Asia-bound tankers. With the city refusing to meet with the company, one observer said the relationship has never been worse. “I don’t know if we could get much lower than this,” said the New Democratic Party’s Kennedy Stewart, the MP for Burnaby-Douglas and a project critic. “We’re talking about duelling arborists.” He was referring to news releases by both the city and the company citing completely difference conclusions by tree experts on the number of tree cut down Tuesday. The trees were cut to allow for drilling equipment to be lowered by helicopter to bore two holes into the mountain. The company wants to determine if the pipeline can be dug through Burnaby Mountain, allowing it to bypass city streets and the residential properties of four families opposed to the project. A report by Kerin Matthews, with Mountain Maple Garden and Tree Service Ltd. of Delta, for Kinder Morgan suggested cutting could include two “snags” — tall dead stumps — and six red alders showing “significant” signs of decay. The report did not recommend that all these trees be taken down, but that decision was made Tuesday due to safety reasons, according to Kinder Morgan. The Matthews report played down the impact of cutting alders. “Alders are known as a ‘pioneer’ species of tree; they are typically one of the first species of trees to re-establish in disturbed areas; they grow and decline quickly, they throw down lots of leaves which decay rapidly to provide a rich new soil layer. New trees will re-generate from the remnant stumps in the form of suckering growth.”

An arborist report from the Burnaby Parks forestry department painted a different picture, noting that decaying trees are important contributors to the ecosystem. “The impact of this action will be felt for many years to come and will extend much further than the direct area of intrusion,” the report stated. “The loss of the 13 trees will have a negative impact on local flora and fauna populations. There is now a substantially lower water adsorption ability of that area, which will lead to lower oxygen levels in the soil for the trees on the downhill side, leading to stress and possible mortality.” Stewart did his share to fan the flames, issuing a statement late Wednesday pointing out that Kinder Morgan Canada is a subsidiary of a Houston-based energy giant. “Kinder Morgan continues to demonstrate contempt for Burnaby residents and their elected representatives. This may be the way they do business in Texas but in Burnaby we will not allow this blatant disregard for our democracy.” Corrigan snapped Thursday at an Ottawa-based journalist who noted that the federal government has jurisdiction under the Constitution over inter-provincial pipelines. “That could only come from someone lodged in Ottawa about the superiority of the federal government.” Tension is also apparent at the site of the tree-felling, with city workers posted every day from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. to monitor visits from Kinder Morgan. On Thursday one of the city workers radioed colleagues to warn that three people were coming in. They turned out to be Kavi Bal of Kinder Morgan’s external relations department, and two others, who were there to lay down an orange nylon sheet to make the area visible to Kinder Morgan videographers and media, who were filming the area from a helicopter hired by the company. Bal referred questions to spokeswoman Lisa Clement, but did say the helicopter tours were intended to “provide clarity on what we are doing,” and to show the area is a natural clearing. The area is a mess of overgrown ferns and salmonberry bushes. A large maple tree towers over the site. The freshly cut stumps of alders are visible, with deep orange-red centres and new leaves. There are some rotting stumps as well. Arnie Nelson, who has been taking strolls in the forest for the past 15 years, said he’s never been in that area before because there is no trail there. He came to have a look when he heard the helicopters. “So this is the famous tree-cutting, eh?” he said. He said he isn’t bothered by the loss of the trees, saying most are fast-growing alders and would die within 20 years anyway. Kinder Morgan’s filing late Wednesday asks the energy board to order Burnaby to comply with the NEB Act. The company complained that the city has threatened to file charges against company contractors for violating bylaws. “As a result of the City of Burnaby’s actions, Trans Mountain is unable to conduct the geotechnical investigations that are urgently required to satisfy the deadlines set out by the NEB,” the notice states to the regulator, which is conducting a broader review to determine if the project should go ahead.