VICTORIA — The B.C. Liberal government has strongly rejected the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, stating in a formal submission to a National Energy Board review panel that the company has not properly addressed the province's environmental concerns. The province did not outright kill the proposed $6-billion oil pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast at Kitimat, but said Enbridge has left unanswered too many questions about its ability to protect marine or freshwater ecosystems in the event of a spill. The proponents have "presented little evidence about how it will respond in the event of a spill," the province wrote in its submission to the Northern Gateway Pipeline Joint Review Panel. "It is not clear from the evidence that (Northern Gateway) will in fact be able to respond effectively to spills either from the pipeline itself, or from tankers transporting diluted bitumen from the proposed Kitimat terminal." B.C. said Enbridge failed to explain how it would respond to a catastrophic spill. "The project before (the Joint Review Panel) is not a typical pipeline. For example: the behaviour in water of the material to be transported is incompletely understood; the terrain the pipeline would cross is not only remote, it is in many places extremely difficult to access; the impact of spills into pristine river environments would be profound," the province wrote. "In these particular and unique circumstances, (Northern Gateway) should not be granted a certificate on the basis of a promise to do more study and planning once the certificate is granted. The standard in this particular case must be higher," it added. "'Trust me' is not good enough in this case." The rejection is a major hurdle for the multi-billion dollar pipeline project, and especially for its ability to gain approval from the Joint Review Panel. "It simply is insufficient for us to think it should go forward," provincial Environment Minister Terry Lake said in an interview on Friday. "The company was unable to give us adequate detail about how they would respond to a spill in some of these (freshwater) locations," he continued. "There's a lot of questions about the behaviour of this product in cold marine environments, and a recognition that more research needs to be done on whether this material would float or whether it would sink, because obviously that makes a difference in terms of any potential spill and how it would be dealt with." Lake said the province's submission is not a death knell for the project, but does set a "high bar" for it to proceed. "Until the National Energy Board is able to process all this and deliver a final verdict, we don't want to conclude that this is absolutely a no," he said. "But we're just saying from what we've seen to date, it doesn't meet the test." Janet Holder, Enbridge's executive vice-president in charge of the Northern Gateway project, said the company believes it can still meet the five conditions set for new pipelines by Premier Christy Clark, adding it has made extensive submissions already, given where the project is in its development.

"We have done a lot more at this stage in the process than any other pipeline company has ever done at this stage of the process," she said. But Holder said it is still too early for the company to get down to exact details of a response plan, like exactly what phone number to call in an emergency at a given point along the line. "The detailed emergency response plan would get down to the detail of who you call and what phone numbers. Well, you don't typically do that years and years before you are actually operating a pipeline," she said. "But we are committed to doing a very detailed emergency response plan as we do in all our businesses." Holder added she remains optimistic about the project. "The fact that we are in the process of increasing the number of resources we have here in British Columbia is an indication that we are still very positive," she added, saying the company will step up its consultation efforts with both government and the public. Federal Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver said in a statement that his government will "review the independent Joint Review Panel's recommendation when it is published by December. "We have been clear: Resource development will not proceed unless it is safe for Canadians and safe for the environment," Oliver said. Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, said his members had expected B.C. to reject the project, but were "very happy" that the province had stated its position so strongly. "They could very well have couched this in less assertive language," Sterritt said. He added that B.C.'s refusal to support the project "is kind of the final nail in the coffin" for Northern Gateway. He added that it might now be easier for the federal government, an ardent supporter of Northern Gateway, to back away from the project. ForestEthics energy campaigner Nikki Skuce said it was "great" to see the provincial government express a view that represents "the majority of its residents." "We agree with the province that there was insufficient evidence given from Northern Gateway on a variety of topics, including their ability to clean up oil spills from the pipelines or tankers. Northern Gateway submitted an incomplete application and made over 240 promises of things they would do once they received approval. "As the province noted in its final arguments, 'trust me' doesn't cut it," Skuce said. Some of the concerns voiced by the province may be challenging for Enbridge to ever effectively address. For example, B.C. noted that travel times for responding to a spill on a remote river "do not take in account mobilization time, and assumes all roads are driveable." B.C. goes on to say that a spill response effort could be curtailed during high stream flow events such as flood or spring freshet, and that it would be tough to contain the oil when the water is raging. The pipeline would make 764 watercourse crossings. "At certain water velocities, (oil containment) booms become ineffective, and are potentially unsafe to operate," the B.C. submission said, adding that winter conditions such as heavy snow accumulations could be forbidding.