Joint Review Panel Hearings Kitimat, June 25 and 26, 2012

The National Energy Boards Joint Review Panel (JRP) community hearings were held in Kitimat on June 25 and 26, 2012. In an attempt to provide you with a sense of what is being said at these hearings, we have selected excerpts from the presentations and will continue to do so through to the end of the hearings in July. For those of you wishing to read the complete text of a statement, it is available on the JRP website: gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/clf-nsi/prtcptngprcss/hrng-eng.html

I have spent hundreds of hours looking at Enbridges risk assessment, management of spills, emergency response and many 1,000 page documents. As an emergency response team leader, search manager with incident command training and local knowledge of large incidents in this area, reading these documents has flabbergasted me. The documented risk assessments and management to spill responses are seriously deficient and woefully lacking in substance. They do not take into consideration the rugged terrain, the climatic conditions and dangers of fast flowing moving water. Lets compare the past two years and worst-case on the Kitimat River. September 2011, heavy rain caused a dramatic increase in river levels within 24 hours. This is a normal occurrence. And the river widens by 75 yards in some locations. I have personally witnessed tree after tree, including 100 foot trees with full root balls 20-feet in diameter barrelling down this river. The Kitimat River flow at that time, 72,000 cubic feet a second, some 18 times more than the Kalamazoo River. Theres not one qualified incident commander that would even consider sending out emergency responders into that raging river. Manny Arruda I believe that oil is an amazing resource, but its a finite resource and I think we have an ethical obligation to conserve some of it for future generations. We also have an ethical obligation to extract it and use it in a way that doesnt irreversibly harm the world that they will inherit. Were not doing that right now. As far as I can tell, theres no overall plan for the development of the tar sands other than to get as much of it out of the ground as fast as possible so that everyone with a stake in it can get as rich as quickly as possible. So to me, the tar sands represent the greed of the current generation stealing a resource from future generations without any regard as to how it will impact them. As an alternative, we could use our creativity and ingenuity to focus more on how we can reduce our energy consumption and develop renewable energy sources. Lani Gibson

My working time at Kitimat was spent as a project engineer at Eurocan Pulp and Paper Company. I have been exposed to many types of projects and industrial processes. Lots of time was spent troubleshooting failures throughout the mill. No matter how hard we tried to do our best, things failed or as they often said, shit happens. Pipes, gaskets would fail; tanks would collapse; equipment would break. We even had SRBs in our stainless tanks. Many items would fail with such power that it would resemble an explosion. My largest project at Eurocan, a 300-tonne per day CMP pulp mill, actually had 10 -- thats it, 10 major failures within the first one to two years after start-up. Development of a large oil tanker system will inevitably lead to an oil spill in our waters. This will cause irreparable or at least long-term damage that will ruin the way of life for the peoples of the north coast. Why should we take all of the risk for the profit of the oil companies? Why do I, family, and friends, need to lose all of the opportunities to enjoy the great times sailing on the Douglas Channel and nearby waters? What would become of the natural hot springs along the coast? What of the shoreline walks; what of the salmon, halibut, cod and crab that so many fishermen ply the waters for and enjoy the proceeds at the dinner table? How would they taste soaked in dilbit? Terry Brown Im not an expert in politics but whats been going on recently with government cuts to research facilities related to marine health, climate change, shortening the timeline for environmental review process, and the gutting of the Fisheries Act, just last week, appear to me to be directly related to pushing this project through by suppressing scientific studies and information that might prove that this project is not such a good idea. I believe that this proposed pipeline is the perfect example of the corporate good superseding the public good. Malcolm Graham I took these calculations one step further. I wondered what the probability that at least one of the locations, the pipeline, the Kitimat Terminal or the marine, would have a spill during the 50year project. This is the combined risk of the whole project, not just singling out one specific area. This is the real risk of the entire project. I chose a medium-size spill because this was the only category there was complete comparable data in each of the three areas. The only difference is the medium-size leaks or spills for the pipeline in Kitimat Terminal are up to one million litres, where a mediumsize spill on the marine portion is up to 20 million litres. Using the appropriate mathematical formula, the probability that at least one of the locations will experience a medium-size leak or spill over the 50-year proposed project is 29.7 percent. This is the real chance of a leak or spill. This is the expected chance of a leak or spill. To Enbridge, this is the cost of doing business, the cost of doing business that is cleverly disguised deep within the volumes of information from the application reports for this proposed project. How can Enbridge call 29.7 percent chance of a medium-size spill or leak small or minimal? Enbridge states in its application, A spill is very unlikely to occur. Just because you say something over and over again doesnt make it true. Kelly Marsh

If Kitimat is to grow, its to benefit our town, province and country, not just China reaping all the rewards. We deserve to be validated as our parents did when many of them left their countries and came to work here, not left with a pipeline that will benefit no one but the greedy corporations. So before we are to pursue this, we have to think about all the outcomes, both positive and negative. Mary Monteiro

I have been fortunate to share in the bounty of Mother Earth through the resources that have been provided to me by my father, my uncles, my grandfather, my husband, my brothers, my nephews and just community members in general and that of other community members that we trade with. Its my lifeblood. It is who I am. Each year -- each year we start the process of harvesting for our winter. We start the process of teaching our children to prepare for the winter. Its a process that we teach our children to bond with their family, to bond with the earth. And to remove that is removing the Haisla from the earth, and thats what you will do if you allow this pipeline to go through. Nancy Nyce The world seems very backwards. Money and power seems to be the most important thing to our Prime Minister. He has a majority, so I believe its gone to his head and he is doing whatever he feels like. The taxpayers dollars are paying for his trips to China. We see his smiling face as he sells out our country one resource at a time. Im hoping the next election will bring in someone who actually cares about our country. Im a proud British Columbian and even prouder Canadian, but I am very ashamed of our federal government. Katherina Ouwehand

The Alberta Federation of Labour commissioned a study to find how many Canadian jobs would be lost by exporting 400,000 barrels per day of unrefined bitumen, and it was found that 20,000 jobs were lost. The Northern Gateway Pipeline will start exporting unrefined bitumen at 525,000 barrels per day, then will increase to 850,000 barrels per day, resulting in tens of thousands of more lost jobs for Canadians. Over 70 percent of the tar sands is foreign owned. Some companies who may want to upgrade or refine their bitumen in Alberta cannot do so because foreign companies have veto power and can insist that the bitumen is exported unrefined. To make matters worse, a foreign petrochemical company with over 500,000 employees, which is owned and controlled by a Communist government, intends to bid on the building on the Northern Gateway pipelines. So this means, in addition to all the lost upgrading and refining jobs, a majority of the Canadian pipeline construction workers and material suppliers who may have benefited from building the pipelines will be left out. It is mind-boggling to accept that this proposal is in the best interests of Canadians. Rather, it appears to benefit the long-term energy needs of a foreign Communist government whose greatest strength is the lack of any real environmental pollution control laws at home and a seemingly endless supply of desperate people willing to work for next to nothing and who also have no real rights as individuals or of workers. Murray Minchin I am afraid of Enbridge because it represents much more than a pipeline; Enbridge is an enabler of all the things that make us ashamed to be Canadian. Do we want a Canada that endangers the whole world by contributing to global warming? Do we want a Canada that muzzles scientists who dont say what the oil companies want them to say? Do we feel proud when Canada puts up roadblocks to treaties with other countries so that oil companies can continue to pollute? Do we really want a Canada that prefers temporary foreign workers to be used and, in many cases, abused, just to provide oil companies with cheap labour? Wouldnt it be more ethical to encourage immigrants to come to Canada to make permanent homes and actually contribute to the country? Once we were proud of Canadas leadership in protecting the environment, both in Canada and world-wide. Now we have sold out to the highest bidders and by so doing we are jeopardizing our very sovereignty. We cannot enter into agreements to limit pollution because the big oil companies who own our resources wont allow it. Once we were the worlds good guys, the peacekeepers, the ones who were caretakers of the environment and of endangered species. Now its all about money. Now we are at the bottom of the heap, along with other money-grubbers of the world. Margaret Ouwehand

Im here as an act of love. I feel I owe it to my home, to Kitimat, to come in to speak. I ask you to reject this project. I do not feel its in the best interests for the people of this community or for our country as a whole. Im here to speak for those that cannot speak. So for every creature of the sea, for every creature of the earth that does not have a human voice that cannot say no, Im here to say no. My soul is very connected to this land, to Kitimat in particular, to the water. It sustains me, not only with food, with fish, but emotionally, I need the water. I need to be close to the water, sometimes in the water just to feel complete. Erika Prett

The spill into the Kalamazoo has cost nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars and the costs are still climbing. It wasnt as large as the spill that Enbridge themselves acknowledged could happen here and it wasnt into a world-class fishing habitat, nor was it a spill into a tidal setting. Enbridge claims the clean-up was harder than they thought due in part to the high water flows at the time. Right now, most of B.C. is reporting flood levels they havent seen in 40 years. There are many concerns I have with this project. One is some of the datasets Enbridge is using in their models seem to be very narrow in scope, especially when it comes to the marine aspect of this project. They have used data collected over a relatively short period of time to make some long-term predictions. Gordon Ouwehand For those of us that call coastal British Columbia home, the existing environment, fish, wildlife, and associated values are the foundation of who we are. It is those values that foster and nurture many family bonds and are the result of cherished memories with loved ones and friends. It is those values that provide a healthy lifestyle and food source. It is those values that support numerous traditions and are the base of revered culture. It is those values that the Northern Gateway Project ultimately threatens to extinguish. Today I wish to have my voice heard in opposition of the Northern Gateway Project and that the benefits of the Northern Gateway Project offers pale in comparison to the risks we are being to ask to shoulder, environmentally, socially, culturally and economically. Michael Langegger I wholeheartedly support the over 130 First Nations in western Canada that have stated their opposition to Enbridges proposed Northern Gateway Project. Opposed First Nations form an unbroken chain across B.C. and from the U.S. border to the Arctic Ocean, the First Nations position being that this project will violate their Constitutionally-protected Aboriginal title and rights and that Enbridge pipeline and tankers are against their laws. I also fully support the two declarations against Enbridge, the first being the Coastal First Nations Declaration, which bans crude oil supertankers on the North Coast, and the second, the Save the Fraser Declaration, which bans tar sands pipelines through the Fraser River watershed and tankers on the North and South Coasts. I ask you and, through you, the federal government, to first listen, then honour and respect the voices of all the people. Reg Roy

When the traders and the missionaries came in in the late 1800s and the culture was forbidden, these people lost. They were taken away. Their children were taken away. They lost a lot of their culture. Just a few short years ago, our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, apologized for taking the families away, forbidding their culture, and has engaged in a process to -- like the truth and reconciliation style of process. But what hasnt happened is taking the time to help the culture restore their traditions, their family lines and their culture. Merv Ritchie

Our fear that future trips down the Channel are going to be marred by the presence of gigantic oncoming supertankers of mind-boggling dimensions, each carrying more than two million barrels of oil; their size, larger than Kitimats whole city-centre mall; longer than two football fields with a draft below the water line of 70 feet which means, in other words, deeper than the highest building in Kitimat. Tourists and locals alike could expect to encounter in excess of 1,000 tankers transits to and fro from the Port of Kitimat. Thats unbelievable the changes coming our way. The numerous natural gas tankers are threatening enough, but the oil ones with their cargos of suspended tar are more than we can bear. Imagine boating with your family and grandkids down to Sue Channel or Gilttoyees Inlet when a giant hulk of a tanker looms suddenly out of the rain in front of you. With its huge bow wake and its ominous cargo of bitumen, it would be like something out of a horror movie. Walter Thorne I do not see this as -- I do not see this pipeline -- or do not want to see this pipeline built. I do not believe it is in anyones best interest except for Stephen Harper and China. I am certainly not willing to risk my familys future to some big oil company that thinks they can bulldoze or pay their way in. I am not an activist or an environmentalist or a Harper radical. I am simply a woman, a daughter, a wife, and a mother, who must stand up and voice my opinion before we lose everything that we hold dear. I sit here before you and I say, no to the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline Project. I would like to thank all those who spoke today and those who are scheduled to speak. Getting up in front of an audience to speak about something very personal is very scary and you must be applauded for being so very brave. I must say, before I leave, that you were all much braver than our mayor and council who still refuse to take a stand on this project. And it saddens me that the ones we voted in to be our voice are refusing to do so. Kelly Ruff

Good afternoon. Im here today just to say that I dont believe the pipeline is a good thing for this part of our -- part of the world because of all the damages that can be done, the loss of life, wildlife, the loss of all our rivers that are around. Everything right from moose to the deer to the seal, the eagles, everything depends on our system, our water systems. Im not going to be sitting here and talking, you know, forever and ever. Just the point is loud and clear that we all agree in this courthouse that Enbridge, the oil pipeline, is not a good thing at all because how do we -- how do we make fish taste like smoked fish? How do we make eulachons taste like smoked eulachons and how do we make grease? Because once the pipeline breaks, all in our waters over here, the fish all swim through it. One way or another, theyll be into the oil stream. Jim Wilson We are now hearing of oil spills on a regular basis. Its a common occurrence to a point we think, Well, whats the big deal; its only a few more thousand barrels on the ground. Its ruining peoples lives, their property and their farm animals. Its at a point we think its normal. Years ago, in the States, one of the large chemical companies, during a hearing -- I was watching this on T.V. -- said its the governments fault for letting our company pollute. It was the governments fault that they didnt enforce the laws. It was the governments fault that it allowed lobbyists to lobby and water down existing rules. So the companies basically said, not our fault; it was your government. As we have more spills and more spills, we already -- we are already down the same road. We are accepting things we should not accept as the norm. Leo De Sousa

I love Kitimat and the whole northwest. I love its beauty and its wholesomeness. The thought of an oil spill, whether through a pipe break or from an oil tanker, terrifies me. Over the past few years, I have attended many presentations and information sessions from which I have considered the pros and cons of this project, and I know that you have and continue to as well. We have the facts and the figures. We have the data and the science. I dont think that we have to go over every detail of information collected to realize that the cons far outweigh the pros. The truth is the truth; oil spills happen and they happen often, and these oil spills can never totally be cleaned up. The facts, figures and science are there in black and white. One could argue the severity of the consequences or how accurate the facts are. One could downplay the potential danger, but the truth is the truth; the project is reckless and dangerous. Maria Sylvia De Sousa Im lucky enough to work for an organization that works on fisheries management issues and salmon conservation in the Skeena Watershed. So it was this work that offered an opportunity for me to travel to Paris, France for the International Seafood Summit of 2010. I met fishery scientists and biologists, conservationists and agents of change from all over the world. I think, however, that the most important thing that I learned was that my gut was right. I do in fact live in an astoundingly unique place. People kept asking me questions about the Skeena. They had heard of it, but they couldnt believe what I was telling them. I told my new friends that it is normal for the average citizen living on the Skeena to have a couple of shelves of canned salmon and enough fillets in the freezer to get you through the winter. I didnt think anything of it. This is just the way it is here, I explained. They were in disbelief. Many of them explained that they hadnt had wild fish in their rivers for 20 years. Ive always known inherently how special my home is, but it was at that moment and the following couple of days that I truly realized that it is our responsibility to protect that, not just for myself or my partner or my family, not just for future generations and not for the First Nations that have always called the Skeena Watershed home. But I also realize that it is our responsibility to the rest of the world to protect this place from the irreversible damage posed by the Enbridge project. Julia Hill The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline is currently running television commercials telling me that they are the path to my future. I firmly believe this particular future holds a promise of poisoned water, barren ground and dead forests. Angus MacLeod

It is true that this is more than just a pipeline. Its a pathway to large environmental destruction, a pathway to more unwanted, imposed government will on the people. Every sighting of these colossal ships will send a chill throughout the whole area, right from Haida Gwaii through to Kitimat people. People will be stopping, holding their breath, hoping that disaster evades them today. Will it? The waters and the people here must be protected. Say no to this proposal. Realize this; it is possible that, over time, one wreck or grounding of these big boats will set in motion a very bad result, a result that even smallpox or residential school could not achieve. David Macrae My current quality of life is very high. I have two sustainable jobs, a clean environment that provides not just clean air and water, but food as well. My household consumes at least 200 or more pounds of salmon and 100 pounds or more of halibut and cod a year, not to mention the crab and prawns that we harvest as a treat. I derive a great deal of personal satisfaction from providing my family with relatively unpolluted and healthy food from the river, which the river and channel have to offer us. If a spill was to happen and it caused a collapse in fish stocks or pollute them to the point of being inedible, it would have a profound effect on my life. The thought of this development has already caused a great deal of stress and anxiety for me. I try not to think about it, but it is always on my mind. Phillip Dennis Because of the said Section 91.24, the Government of Canada must be very careful, legally speaking, with how they interact with me as an Indian. It is my contention that Canada cannot offload that responsibility to the National Energy Board without free prior and informed consent of me as an Indian, and I claim the status as peoples under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And further to that, the National Energy Board cannot further offload its responsibility to you as the Joint Review Panel. From that perspective, your status as a consultative body is null and void and with no standing under current Canadian domestic jurisprudence. Now we go on to Section 88 of the Indian Act which states that provincial laws of general application shall apply to Indians. That is unconstitutional and is begging for a Constitutional challenge or a challenge under the newly applied Canadian Human Rights Act, which applies to me as an Indian since 2010. Because of Canadas responsibility under Section 91.24, it is unconstitutional for the federal government to offload responsibility for the management and administration of my affairs under Section 88 of the Indian Act. Morris Amos Theres different parts of our territory and he grew up and its Bagwilas (ph) that fed him and his family for his entire existence. As well, in all of his travels, hes witnessed the same type of attachment of other people to their territory, in this community and others as well. As well, he talked about his concerns about the halibut and other species in the ocean that an oil spill will undoubtedly harm. He spoke also of his happiness with the fact that many people from all walks of life are stepping forward to express their own concerns to you about the possibility and the inevitability of an oil spill doing exactly that to our territory. Alan Williams (translated by Gerald Amos)

As the regional coordinator for PSAC Northwest B.C. Region, I represent the public service sector workers for the Department of Fisheries, Coastguard, Customs, border crossings, ships crews, lighthouse keepers, grain elevators, justice, unemployment centres and Passport. Recently, many of these jobs have been cut at a dramatic pace and the current government promises to continue the cuts for the next two years. These cuts will affect the safety of all Canadians. Basically, there really is no safe and risk-free way to get tar sands oils and pipelines and super tankers across British Columbias ecosystem, salmon rivers and streams. To ensure that the pipelines go through with no opposition, the Harper government has gutted the Fisheries and Environmental Acts. These Acts are the cornerstone of environmental law in Canada and have been rendered useless by the Harper government. How can any fish stocks be protected when the changes to the Act remove the protection of fish habitats? Benilde Gomes David Coles, the President of the CEP, 150,000 workers, many of whom are employed in the tar sands, said this quote: Gateway is contrary to our needs for jobs, the economy, environmental protection and First Nations rights. These four pillars have to be a priority. In addition, theres thousands of local jobs at risk by pipeline and supertankers. Considering that the commercial fishery and tourism industry in B.C. employs 45,000 people, all of these jobs -- a majority of these jobs could be at risk. The northwest fishing industry alone amounts to $140 million annually. The federal government wants to risk these sustainable jobs for a mere 217 jobs, says Arnie Nagy of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union. John Jensen I have said many times, and Ill say it to you as well, that this community that Ive grown up in has never been opposed to development. And the only way I can express it to you is that the concern that we bring here, that I bring here today and that Ive heard from others, is that rather than being opposed to anything, what were asking you to consider as a Panel is the pace, the scale and, in this case, the type of development that we allow into our territory. The pace, the scale and the type of development is crucial to our ability and capacity to undo or take some measure of control over the cumulative impacts that have come with development. In my lifetime, weve lost access to the abalone which we used to get out in Gitgaat territory. I havent had a feed of abalone now for 25 years because of over fishing. The wrong decision led to, quite possibly, the extinction of this resource. In 1970, Eurocan came into our area. We attempted, through our Council of the day, and asked them respectfully not to build and pollute the Kitimat River. It happened anyway. And it is one of the cumulative issues that contributed to the demise of the eulachon run in the Kitimat River, where our community used to harvest 650 tonnes of eulachon annually. In my lifetime, thats been taken away. So my question to you, are we going to allow this to continue? Because the pace, the scale and the type of development is killing us. Its taking away the identity of the Haisla people. Its destroying the right of our -- the people that come after us to make decisions of their own. Gerald Amos

My husband I very much enjoy going out on Douglas Channel with our 17-foot canoe. Every time weve gone out there, something special has happened. It is so quiet and peaceful that you can hear everything. We have had many seals come up behind us unannounced. I know we wont be able to go out paddling in our canoe when the supertankers start coming up the channel. Our canoe is meant for a bit of rough water, but not the kind of wave that a supertanker would make. That kind of wave would just push us around like we were a leaf or a feather floating silently. This is my nightmare. I am paddling in the bow of the canoe and all of a sudden this enormous black wall is there, and it starts sucking us right down underneath it into the black void. Lucy McRae I remember soon after arriving in Kitimat getting involved in discussions aimed at extending the moratorium on offshore exploration. At one meeting I asked someone who had had the opportunity to visit Aberdeen and asked them how the environment had been affected. He just looked at me and said What environment? He was right. We run the world using a business model for free market economy, but this is a planet. Its not a corner store with an inexhaustible supply of everything we could ever want. This is not the way my household runs. There is more to life than the bottom line. Peter Ponter Because of this project, I joined a political party. I used to vote on issues; not a party. I was unaware of most political nastiness. I was busy living my life, raising my family, paying my bills, being a good citizen. Now, because of this project and all the changes to Bill 38 related to the oil and gas industry and other large corporations that make it easier to walk all over Canadian rights and the protection of us. Why? Because a few of us had the nerve to stand up and disagree with the oil and gas big boys. This project has divided communities, provinces and the country. Divide and conquer is the large corporations claim to fame. Nobody wants a dilbit pipeline in their backyard or in their wilderness, period. Its caused arguments with family members that have never been here to see the route or research this project. Tracy Petley This is not stable ground. Its very vertical and we have a very unique environment in that regard. The landslides, the avalanches, the floods, they happen with tremendous force and they are not controllable. But again, I say when something happens to the pipeline, containment and clean-up will be next to or absolutely impossible. This area gets such a great deal of snow in the winter and rain, of course, in the summer and springs. In the most volatile areas where I expect the landslides can damage things, where the highest risk is, access to those areas can take many days. It could possibly take weeks. It may even be measured in months. Some of them you cant get there. It doesnt matter what resources you have, you cant get there in a reasonable time. And because it is so vertical, as soon as it leaks, its going to the water regardless of what the material is. Youre not going to stop it. And it is immediately widely distributed to our water systems, killing the fish and the wildlife and the situation we would not be able to clean up regardless of the resources that are available. That damage, as we all understand, lasts for generations. Rick Reinert

I am concerned that these corporate faults and human error will cause an incredible amount of destruction within our ecosystem here in the Kitimat Valley watershed. Such incidents have the potential to cause severe and irreversible damage and the permanent collapse of the local fresh water and marine ecosystem of the entire Kitimat River valley and estuary and the Douglas Channel and points beyond and to have a severely destructive effect on all surrounding areas. In forwarding this Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal, the Board of Directors and the employees of Enbridge Oil, along with Stephen Harper and the Conservative government of Canada, propose to place these threats upon the health -- the health and the wellbeing of my children, my grandchildren and future Haisla generations. I am concerned the Federal Conservative Party has no interest in the protection of our environment and the ecosystem which is the basis of the natural world. Greg Robinson I want to tell you that I feel this entire exercise has been a microcosm and a repeat of how we as a society treat First Nations people in this country. It is a travesty. It shames me as a Canadian and as a white person. Unless we fundamentally start recognizing and respecting First Nations people and their communities, not only their Aboriginal rights and title but their role as historic stewards, we will never heal. I feel the way Enbridge has behaved in the boardrooms, in the media, and in the valley with the Haisla people is indicative of the way corporations and governments perpetuate the way society treats indigenous people in general. The attitude of let us tell you what you need is shameful, sad, and Im embarrassed for you. Coastal First Nations communities have been clear in their opposition to the project. It baffles me that we are even at this point. Why are we still talking about this? They have said no bitumen, no oil in their territory. They do not need to be schooled in what is good for their communities or for their future. They know who they are. In closing, again I will say Im opposed to the pipeline, to this project, and for no other reason but at the end of today and at the end of my days, my three children will ask me what I did. Veronica Slalina Our great federal government has said, and I paraphrase this one, the environmentalists that oppose Enbridge are just radicals and akin to terrorists. What does this mean? It means theyre scared. Theyre calling us names. The definition of radical is extreme, especially as regards to change, favouring drastic political, economic and social reforms. So a radical is really anyone who would want this huge change to our environment and planet, not the people who want to stop it. Another thing the government says, environmentalists are always just fundamentally opposed to development. I am in favour of development, but sustainable development. Government want a quick buck at the cost of our future and future development will lose our fishing, hunting, logging, farming, tourism. Im even in favour of pipelines, slightly. The LNG pipeline is not as destructive to our environment as this Enbridge proposal and produces far more jobs, as they will be refining our product before shipping it off. And it does benefit Canadians. Daniel Stenson

I have lived here for 40 years. During that time I have floated down the Kitimat River. Thats not in a boat; I have floated in my dry suit with the diving club. We did it every July 1 for years. Ive fished in the river and drank the water because it was that clean. And I could see the salmon reds among the rocks of the river. I could easily understand why any amount of oil in this river would plug up the gravel and seep around the rocks, effectively killing all the salmon hatch and make cleanup impossible . To cleanup people would have to pick up every rock and wipe it with a towel to be called a cleanup? Because its just -- the Kitimat River is just rocks; big rocks, little rocks. And now the Kitimat River is rated as the third most endangered river in B.C. Any other straw would push it over the edge . Now, Enbridge say they will do things -- certain things so that there will be no spills or such, but they know and I know and anyone who has not closed their eyes and mind to reality know that there will be a disaster. It may be a broken pipeline in an accessible area, or a tanker colliding with a rock or another tanker or any other number of happenings. And when this happens no one will be able to even call any kind of a cleanup successful. The land is too hostile and inaccessible and in the winter it is even worse. Glenn Stenson We did a science project at school where we added oil to water, then tried to clean it up. This was done in a small drinking glass and it was impossible to clean. The majority of the oil was left in the water. If we tried to get all the oil out, we would have taken all the water out. Now imagine that happening in our waters in B.C. A spill in one location such as our channel will eventually reach other shores worldwide. What a mess. They say itll make money; I say it will create destruction. Victoria Stenson (10)

Last week, another Enbridge pipeline had a problem and this time 230,000 litres of oil was spilled. It was hard for me to visualize that amount, so I started to think about it in terms of a one-litre container of milk. The average family -- Canadian family of four -- would drink approximately three litres of milk a day. In one year, that would equal 1,095 litres. Enbridges latest spill would be like an average Canadian family spilling 210 years worth of milk. It shocked me. It was 210 years. Chery Willis

This pipeline will be like a rotten onion hiding in the back of the pantry. When theres one rotten onion in the pantry, everything that comes out of the pantry has a strange sickening stench to it but nobody can tell what it is. So I conclude with a plea to you, the JRP, say no to this onion before it starts to stink. Bill Vollrath I worry about our country and the people that will live years from now. Natural resources are a good thing to have but they should not be plundered. And we must be careful to remember that once this destructive project comes in, we will never get it out -- we will never get rid of it, no matter how many times it leaks. When they have a leak, the most important thing for them is to get the dilbit running again. We are certainly doing our best to take away the inheritance of resources on the earth for future generations. We arent thinking of sustainability. Were thinking of me, me, me. Margaret Stenson

My statements are more concerns, I guess, or unanswered questions. The pipeline, the loading facility, and the tankers will be carrying very toxic and volatile substances, and I am wondering what equipment is currently available to effectively collect any spills or unintentional releases depending on what the terminology is being used? Because I know through Burrard Clean Spill Response Course, under ideal conditions, slack tide, no wind and a containment boom around the vessel being loaded, youre lucky if you get 15 percent back. And Ive asked several people in different industries how much, what percent would be recovered of the bitumen. I havent received an answer yet. Christopher Walter Wilson We relied -- we relied on our -- in our channel -- our rivers and our channel for our food. Thats why I say this is our dinner plate out here, and weve been threatened. Weve been threatened by this oil industry. I have four children, I have five grandchildren, and I have great-grandchildren also, too. I just attended a graduation of my -- one of my great-grandchildrens graduation in Kildala School. I fear for them because they wont understand what is happening here. Theyre not going to understand now, but later on in life, and theyre going to question. Theyre going to question, Where were you, Baba, when -- when they were threatening our community? I hope they come and visit my grave and say, Thank you for saying no to Enbridge. Ray Green

I am concerned that the Northern Gateway project is being promoted as a way to more rapidly and completely exploit as much of the tar sands as possible in the short term, 30 to 50 years. In the hope of accessing the currently high and lucrative demand for raw bitumen, particularly in China, in this extreme rush to get tar sands production exported, this proposal is predicated on doing no upgrading and no refining within Alberta, British Columbia or, for that matter, Kitimat. By all accounts I have read coming from Alberta or from the United States, 12 to 20,000 potential Canadian jobs are being exported along with the raw bitumen in this proposal. In my considered opinion, this is wrong. Rob Goffinet First and foremost, theres a complete lack of trust in the environmental review in the public comments made by the Prime Minister and certain Cabinet Ministers have done nothing to create faith in our current governance model. In fact, those elected officials have fettered your discretion as statutory decision makers. That is the reason why it is tough for me to trust that the Crown will act in the best interest of the people. The Crown permitting has enabled five of our eulachon-bearing watersheds to be decimated and our eulachon endangered. Crown permitting has allowed Rio Tinto to greatly pollute the fish habitat in the Ksgaxl area across the bay, and thats been known for a long time, but nobodys done anything about it. Steve Wilson In my health care work, I see many challenges people face. It is a fact that our physical health is not defined only by our body, but by our mind and our spirit also. Health of all of our people, including the original First Nations population, has been incredibly challenged in our short history of development in this northwest region of B.C. and the rest of Canada. Changes to the way of life that have already occurred have been recognized to cause significant chronic health and social problems. The changes that will happen after an oil spill will exponentially increase these issues, further chronic mental health issues, depression, addiction, losses to the community and family groups. Ruth Mueller

I am now here in front of you before the fact to let you know that I do not want Enbridge to bring their tankers in our Haisla territory. For me, my children, my entire family, for the Haisla people, bringing the pipeline and tankers here is wrong. The foods that I preserve every year is my parents legacy; it is part of our culture that they took great pride in teaching. It is a part of my culture that I gain strength from. When there is an oil spill, and Im not saying if there is an oil spill, but when there is an oil spill, should this project go ahead, the last bit of my culture, the last bit of my pride will be wiped out with Enbridge oil. Joyce Amos

I have two concerns about the increases in the chance for ship accidents and oil spills. One is that once the project is built, it may open the door to large increases in the volume of product being transported on these waters via Enbridge or other company facilities. The other is about cuts to marine safety measures down the road when some of these prove to be too costly. In regards to spills, we know that a big release of toxic bitumen into the sea will be next to impossible to clean up completely. A small part will be recovered symbolically and at a great cost, but the bulk will be left to fall and poison the sea. And I dont give much credence to tanker vetting, either. Changing circumstances could bring double-hulled tankers here that are in poor condition, especially as they get older, or poorly trained crews. In my view, these issues dont make the project attractive. Per-Henrik Norman The Enbridge Company has an abysmal history of environmental accidents. Between 99 and 2008, Enbridge recorded 610 spills that released 132,000 barrels of hydrocarbons into farms, wetlands, and waterways on the continent. Enbridge made headlines in July 2010 as one of its pipelines caused the largest oil spill in the history of the U.S. Midwest. In our pristine Northern B.C., what could be more devastating? For each spill in the bush, an ecosystem dies, a river or stream is polluted never to recover, and all life it supports leaves or dies with it. This is not justifiable. The future here would be denied. Martha Murray

The third and last thing that happened on my canoe journey was what we saw as we paddled along Grenville Channel. First we pulled into a place called Lowe Inlet and we saw this slab; it was a thick slab of clear, translucent water and it was about a metre thick and about five metres across, coming down from a lake and pouring directly into the ocean. Along both sides of that rocky embankment we saw black bears alternately swiping their paws to catch salmon and grabbing them while the salmon were trying to fight their way up this big slab of water. There were so many salmon around us at that moment, it was hard to distinguish the giant raindrops from the fish swirling and jumping around our boat. I had to put my camera down to truly soak in the magnificence of that moment. Then when we left the inlet, the sun came out for a few moments which allowed us to witness five humpback whales surfacing and blowing spray beside us. This is a magical place. I was deeply touched by seeing them and those bears in their natural habitat. I am now horrified that the whales, just starting to live on our ocean, in our waters again, after years of whaling might leave the area because of the hundreds of oil supertankers that are predicted to travel through local waters because they make so much propeller noise . Patricia Lange If huge oil sands -- or oil projects like the tar sands and Enbridge go ahead then the whole green energy movement is frozen for the next 40 years, until they run out of their supplies. And thats a bad thing. Well never get off the dirty energy merry-go-round if we keep giving in to huge corporations and their puppet politicians who swing their money around like sledgehammers. We need to start somewhere and it might as well be here because then theyre going to move up to the Arctic and well go through this whole thing again in 40 years time, and Ill be sitting there in my wheelchair saying, I told you so. So its up to us, the people, to make the decision, right or wrong, not the companies and not their puppet politicians either because theyre not listening to their voters. We need to start somewhere and we need to start here. Elizabeth Thorne

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