Directly Affected

Image Credit - Submitted by Brian Kingman

By Brian Kingman

On March 11th, the Abbotsford based activist group known as Pipe-up will host a twenty minute video event called 'Directly Affected'. There are actually some 800 landowners in the Fraser Valley that will be truly Directly Affected when Kinder-Morgan/Trans Mountain commences construction of the new larger pipeline in 2016. The National Energy Board (NEB) regulatory body is well underway and actually closer to winding down as it began in December 2013.

I am the Secretary Treasurer of a 90 member landowner association using the acronym CGLAP; short for the Collaborative Group of Landowners Affected by Pipelines. We are a recognized society who consists of Directly Affected landowners, many with property in Mount Lehman and the Bradner - Jubilee region of Abbotsford who, by the terms of the NEB are the recognized Directly Affected landowners. I understand that Pipe-up (pro-information pro-environment united people) are using the title of the video as a protest to the NEB who only allowed 400 applicants to be Intervenors as they laid out a qualification regulation to apply for Intervenor status that made it very difficult for residents not on or near the expansion project to achieve the official voice to be heard by the NEB in the Intervenor role.

Even though CGLAP is not against the pipeline, it is, in my opinion, very important that residents of the Fraser Valley attend this function at UFV on March 11th to show concern to Trans Mountain that residents, no matter where they live in the Fraser Valley have the right to be concerned and if needbe, voice their opinions on the expansion project. Apathy will be the message Trans Mountain receives if there is a poor turnout to this event. 

The event will include an expert panel including Chief Dalton Silver of the Sumas First Nation, film director Zack Embree, UFV agriculture expert Lisa Powell, Lynn Perrin of PIPE-UP and Raincoast biologist Misty MacDuffee.

March 11th, 2015 - 7:00 - 9:00 pm - Admission by donation. 
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), 33844 King Road, Abbotsford BC

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