https://armchairmayor.ca/2018/03/02/letter-why-b-c-will-never-allow-the-trans-mountain-pipeline-to-be-built/
[Disclosure: I have met Nelson Riis several times.]
LETTER – Why B.C. will never allow the Trans Mountain pipeline to be built
Be forewarned! There is a environmental protest tsunami wave surging
throughout B.C., focused mostly in the Lower Mainland , against the KM
pipeline.
The pipeline corridor goes through many opposing B.C. towns, Indian
Reservations and all through lands considered First Nations Treaty
territory. First Nations have lived in harmony with the land for
generations and value its protection as a result but other B.C.
residents also have a special attachment to the land which few in Canada
appreciate or understand.
Why? Stand outside any B.C. home and you may see mountains, forests,
lakes, glaciers, rivers, hills and/or ocean. We are reminded every and
all day of our special relationship and closeness with nature.
For most Canadians this simply is not their reality. Their reality is
usually concrete or the house across the street. The most crucial issue
with KM is with gargantuan oil tankers plying the ocean tides, and
currents through Burrard Inlet, along Stanley Park, past the beaches of
English Bay, out into the Salish Sea, threading through the pristine
Gulf Islands and out through the Straight of Juan de Fuca.
In no city in the world can you ski in the morning and play golf or go
sailing in the afternoon. Vancouver’s pristine natural setting is
unprecedented. Tens of thousands of B.C. men, women and children who
value their attachment to nature will simply not allow chemically laden
bitumen to threaten B.C.’s natural environment.
Remember the protests, and often the arrests, surrounding the Great Bear
Rain Forest, Carmanah, Clayoquot Sound, Lyall Island, Meares Island,
Slocan valley, Gustoffson Lake controversies? The KM Pipeline protests
will make the Standing Rock protest look like a Boy Scout picnic.
What is Beautiful B.C. worth? Most of the people of this unique province
will never allow their pristine natural environment be destroyed by an
oil spill. Be prepared for a protest, the likes of which we have never
seen or imagined.
Kinder Morgan will never be allowed to happen.
NELSON RIIS