NDP MP Linda Duncan blasts government over tanker threat to

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NDP MP Linda Duncan blasts government over tanker threat to endangered West Coast orcas

[ https://www.hilltimes.com/2016/12/01/nd ... rcas/89616 ]

Ms. Duncan, the NDP's environment critic and an environmental lawyer by trade, says that the federal government's approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, as it stands, means that the government hasn't 'delivered on their responsibilities for a threatened species.'

The National Energy Board determined the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion would have a significant adverse effect on an endangered killer whale population off the shore of Vancouver, due to an increase in oil tanker traffic. Photograph courtesy of Christopher Michel

By TIM NAUMETZ PUBLISHED : Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016 10:42 AM

Linda Duncan, the lone New Democrat MP elected in Alberta, is bucking NDP Premier Rachel Notley’s support for the federal cabinet’s approval of a new Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna approved the expansion project, which a report from the National Energy Board determined would have a significant adverse effect on an endangered killer whale population off the shore of Vancouver due to an increase in oil tanker traffic.

In approving the expansion of an existing Kinder Morgan pipeline from Edmonton and through two ranges of mountains to Burnaby, B.C. for tanker shipments abroad through the Port of Vancouver, Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) and Ms. McKenna (Ottawa Centre, Ont.) agreed with the National Energy Board’s finding that the impact on the orca population, and the related implications on local aboriginal spiritual and cultural use of the whale, is outweighed by the overall economic benefits are “in the Canadian public interest.”

But Ms. Duncan (Edmonton Strathcona, Alta.) disagrees that the matter has been given enough consideration.

“I don’t take positions for or against pipelines. I push for a proper review process that considers all the impacts,” she said, responding to a question about her position versus Ms. Notley’s enthusiastic support.

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