Bowen Island Councilor Sue Ellen Fast brought a Bowen Island perspective to a Ministerial hearing on the Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion project last week.
Fast says that council received the invitation to this event at too short of notice to put together an official statement, so she spoke on behalf of herself.
“Our council said a number of things about fossil fuels and risks to our environment in Howe Sound, but not specifically to this proposal because we understood that we didn’t have a role to play in the input, although our population sees a number of impacts,” she told the panel. Fast then went on to outline statements made by Bowen’s council that touch on issues related to the pipeline expansion project.
These statements include a letter to the BC Climate Leadership Team supporting actions to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change, the right for Bowen citizens to live in a healthy environment, to the Environmental Assessment office in regards to concerns about LNG tanker safety and negative impacts in Howe Sound and to Member of Parliament Pamela Goldsmith-Jones asking for changes to the environmental assessment before a decision is made on the Woodfibre LNG process.
Fast also told the panel that she has heard a lot from citizens about new project proposals from the fossil fuels industry.
“They’re concerned about marine pollution, they’re concerned about air quality, concerned about shorelines and rising sea levels,” said Fast.
She continued, stating the ways that the events of last summer, including an oil spill in English Bay, a drought, and the orange haze caused nearby forest fires brought home a new reality: that we are already feeling the effects of climate change.
“We prefer to reduce risks not increase it, and work towards a sustainable future, that’s the name of our Official Community Plan,” she said “I would just think that people would prefer to imagine driving a car where you are not paying at the pump, and clean air and clean food and bicycling and walking and lots of public transit. That’s a clean energy future that Bowen Islanders are looking for and it is within reach – we’re seeing signs of that. This is a step backwards.”
