In a “Dear Neighbour” letter to residents, Kinder Morgan warns homeowners that if the company is not able to continue its pipeline test drilling on Burnaby Mountain, it may be forced to re-route its oil pipeline once again past homes and streets.

The Texas-based energy giant says it has been thwarted repeatedly from accessing the city's conservation lands to do geotechnical work for the last leg of its proposed $5.4-billion Edmonton-to-Burnaby oil sands pipeline.

Stopping this drill work has been the City of Burnaby’s legal team, the Mayor of Burnaby, and many concerned residents.

“We are also very conscious that if we are unable to conduct these necessary studies soon, we may have to pursue our alternate route through city streets in the Westridge neighbourhood,” states the Kinder Morgan letter, by Lizette Parsons Bell, Lead Stakeholder Engagement and Communications.

The letter adds, the push to go under the mountain was itself a way to appease residents concerns and avoid many homes.

A citizens’ group – Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion (BROKE) – called this memo a “threat.”

“I think it’s atrocious. It’s essentially a threat. It’s saying, ‘I’m going to cut your limbs off -- do you want a leg or an arm cut? It’s a lose-lose situation,” said BROKE spokesperson Stephen Collis on Monday, who is also a SFU professor.

“They’re saying, ‘we can tear up the streets in front of your home, or tear up your park. But it’s not much of a choice,” he added.

The company’s letter to residents was penned Thursday - the same day Kinder Morgan lost its application to the National Energy Board in its attempt to forbid the City of Burnaby from blocking its crews in the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area.

The letter also states that the company has “heard loud and clear” from its own engagement with homeowners that a route going under the mountain is the public’s preferred option.

Proposed: deactivate existing residential pipeline

The company also makes a new proposal for residents.

"We would also like to explore deactivating the existing pipeline through the Westridge neighbourhood and rerouting it through Burnaby Mountain, should our studies and testing tell us it is feasible,” wrote Parsons Bell.

That same residential pipeline line famously ruptured in Burnaby in 2007, sending gushers of oil on to people's cars and homes after it was punctured with a backhoe.

The company recently robocalled thousands of Lower Mainland residents, providing many with the opportunity to ask questions directly to the President of Kinder Morgan Canada.

Mayor Derek Corrigan is steadfast against the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline on many levels.

“I’m opposed to it. It is a wrongheaded way for us to be able to utilize the resources of this country. I think the idea of pulling oil out of the ground as quickly as possible in order to export it for short-term profit doesn’t look at the long-term interests of the country,” said Corrigan in a recent interview.

“It’s an absolute travesty that we’re exporting oil on the west coast, while importing by tanker on the east coast.”

“There is no national strategy. No national plan. There is simply a National Energy Board considering the technical merits of projects, and its companies that are deciding what our national interest is. It’s unacceptable,” said the Mayor.

A recent City of Burnaby-commissioned poll showing 70 per cent of residents supporting the Mayor of Burnaby’s opposition to the project.

A lawyer for the City of Burnaby said Friday that the only way for Kinder Morgan to continue its drill work is if it returns to the National Energy Board with a new legal attack against the city, involving much thornier constitutional implications.

It would have to persuade the board that the pipeline’s legal justification under federal law supercedes the constitutional right of cities to enforce bylaws, said the lawyer.

Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion project was the subject of much debate among mayors and councillors at a B.C. municipalities convention last week.

Three cities – Vancouver, Burnaby and Victoria – passed motions protesting either the company’s spill response plans, or the manner by which pipelines are federally approved by the NEB.

The City of Surrey also confirmed recently its council does not support any expansion of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline system.



