If Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam MP Ron McKinnon has the ear of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion could be a pipe dream.
In a letter to Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, and shared widely with his Liberal colleagues and the media, the rookie MP said the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion should be denied because the government "lacks social licence" to proceed with the project.
"I appreciate the difficulty the government of Canada has in trying to look after the interests of the entire country," wrote McKinnon in a letter date stamped Wednesday, Nov. 16. "It is my responsibility as the member of Parliament for Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam to represent my constituents' interests in Ottawa, and not Ottawa's interests in my riding. I take that role very seriously."
The letter surfaces a month before the federal government is expected to make a decision on the $6.8-billion project that, if approved, would triple the capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, which carries diluted bitumen from oil sands near Edmonton to Burnaby for export, requiring a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet.
In his letter, McKinnon describes the opposition to the pipeline expansion in his constituency and among indigenous communities in the Lower Mainland as "overwhelming."
Other concerns listed include the lack of information on the effects the increase on tanker traffic would have on killer whales and other species, and impacts on infrastructure, such as the potential of tankers colliding with bridges.
Noting that his constituents understand the need for pipelines to move oil from Alberta, McKinnon said the worry is that the health, environmental and social costs of a spill in such a populated area are "far too great to allow this project to proceed."
As well, he noted, B.C. would shoulder the overwhelming burden of the benefits flowing to the Alberta from the pipeline expansion, possibly jeopardizing industries such as fisheries, tourism and recreation.
"The disadvantages of this project far exceed any advantage for British Columbia," he wrote.
He goes on to say that the ministerial panel looking into the National Energy Board process found gaps in the process, and more consultation on impacted communities and buy-in from indigenous communities are essential before any project such as this should proceed.
The federal government is expected to make a decision on the pipeline before Dec. 19.