New Westminster, BC – New Westminster City Council has released the following statement regarding their opposition to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (TMX) and support for land defenders in their Court application to have the injunction granted to TMX set aside. The proposed pipeline expansion would triple the capacity of diluted bitumen being transported from the oil sands in northern Alberta to Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Mountain storage and shipping facility. The proposed pipeline runs through the Brunette River watershed as well as adjacent to the river. The City of New Westminster was granted intervenor status by the National Energy Board in 2015.

New Westminster Council continues to be concerned about the location of the new Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (“TMX”) within the sensitive riparian area of the Brunette River;  

As an intervener in the flawed National Energy Board process that led to the approval of the TMX project, the City of New Westminster has not been satisfied that TMX sufficiently addresses the imminent and long-term risks to the Brunette River, its unique habitat, and species at risk, including recently-rejuvenated local populations of chum and coho salmon, and the endangered Nooksack Dace;

New Westminster Council continues to be concerned that the TMX project is at odds with Canada’s regulated commitments under the Paris Agreement to reduce global Greenhouse Gas emissions and limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius;

New Westminster Council stands in support of the land defenders currently acting to protect fragile riparian habitat near the Brunette River through peaceful protest and occupation of federally regulated lands, and ask that the injunction preventing this action be set aside.

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Contact:

Ashleigh Young
Communications Officer
City of New Westminster
604-527-4559 or