On the same day Ottawa announced its controversial decision to give Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline the go-ahead, the company behind another major pipeline project in B.C. was courting Metro Vancouver’s Chinese community in its drive to shore up public support.

Ian Anderson, president of Kinder Morgan Canada, was in Vancouver last Tuesday for a meet-and-greet with about 20 members from the Lower Mainland’s Chinese media outlets. With the company’s planned expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline aiming to connect North American oil producers with the Asian — or, more specifically, Chinese — market, reaching out to a local community with active ties and interests with that market only seems logical.

“There are always communities within communities, and I believe it’s time we reach out to these communities,” Anderson said of the lunch meeting, held in Vancouver’s Chinatown. “If they have concerns different from what we are hearing from others, we want to hear them … If Chinese residents of Burnaby have issues we are not aware of, please, let us know.”

Just as Enbridge is facing stiff opposition to its Northern Gateway proposal from environmentalists and some First Nations members, Kinder Morgan’s plans to more than double the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline (from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day) with a $5.4-billion expansion is running into challenges. One of the most vocal is coming from Burnaby’s city council.

Kinder Morgan is planning to change the pipeline’s routing under Burnaby Mountain, which Anderson says will minimize the disturbance to residents in the city. Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan has repeatedly made clear that council is opposed to the pipeline. The two sides are at such a deadlock that Kinder Morgan is considering asking the National Energy Board to force access to the land where the company wants to test the feasibility of its tunnel route.

“I’m always worried about antagonizing (Burnaby officials), because it’s not the type of relationship we want to have,” Anderson said, but added he is working hard to find a solution that will address both energy producers’ need for market access and local residents’ well-being. “We have the obligation to regional authorities and the residents of Burnaby to explore all the options available to us.”

That need may be the reason Kinder Morgan is now reaching out to the Chinese community. It may be doing due diligence in seeking the public opinions of all communities affected. Or it could be seeking to build support in a community that, with its closer business ties to Asia, would benefit economically from an increased energy trade with China and beyond.

Anderson said at the meeting he has spoken with business leaders in the Chinese-Canadian community, and many could be interested learning more about the economic opportunities that an expanded pipeline would afford them.

However, courting the Chinese-Canadian community brings its own set of challenges, as the questions and responses later in the meeting demonstrated.

Questions from media members spanned many issues. Why wasn’t the plan to divert the pipeline to Delta port, thus avoiding adding tanker traffic to the Burrard Inlet and adjacent Stanley Park? What would happen in an earthquake? What will the pipeline do to the values of homes along the pipeline route? In many ways, the Chinese-Canadian community’s questions were no different than those found in the public.

There lies the challenge with courting Chinese-Canadians: Despite the common misconceptions (we’ve all heard them), the community defies stereotypes. It is so diverse in its background, culture, interests, income, immigration status, self-identity and even language, that it can be argued it shouldn’t really be regarded as a single “Chinese-Canadian” community. Rather, it is a collection of smaller subgroups, each with its specific ideas and interests.