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Enbridge officials meet with Village of Burns Lake council

A special meeting was held between the Village of Burns Lake councillors and Enbridge Northern Gateway officials on April 12.

A special meeting was held between the Village of Burns Lake councillors and Enbridge Northern Gateway officials on April 12.

Details of the meeting were released in the Village of Burns Lake agenda on May 3. No members of the public attended the meeting.

According to Stephanie Beerling village corporate communications officer, the meeting was advertised according to the Municipal Act.

Beerling said to Lakes District News that when a special meeting is held the village is required to advertise the meeting in a public place.

“The village’s front office is considered a public place but we went beyond that and also put up posters at the [Lakeview] mall and the post office,” she said.

During the meeting, Kevin Brown Enbridge’s manager of community relations, Colin Kinsley chair of the Northern Gateway Alliance, and Michelle Perret, Enbridge’s senior manager of municipal relations updated councillors on the proposed project.

Regional District of Bulkley Nechako chief administrative officer Gail Chapman also attended the meeting.

Enbridge places Burns Lake in the B.C. central region, which they say will benefit from an estimated spending of $2.2 million during the three year construction stage.

The project will create a total of 560 jobs in B.C., 165 of those will be in Kitimat, other jobs will be in  the areas of food service, trades and industrial technicians and general construction jobs and will provide $32 million in annual labour income.

From the 560 jobs they estimate the project will create 65 jobs in the B.C. central region, through the purchase of services, materials and supplies from Northern businesses. According to Enbridge purchases made at businesses across the North during the construction phase will allow the businesses to hire more people.

It will also generate $46 million in B.C. government tax revenue annually if approved.

An operational office in Burns Lake would be opened during construction and staffed by seven employees.

Councillor John Illes asked the delegation about suggestions that the pipeline is not going to be viable.

Kinsley responded that the argument had come from concerns that a customer base for the export of petroleum is yet to be established in China and Perret added that it is too early in the project to establish any buyers.

“The return on the pipeline will be regulated by the National Energy Board with a fixed 11 per cent rate of return on 30 per cent equity,” she said.

Chief administrative officer, Sheryl Worthing then asked for more specifics about the project’s time line.

“The National Energy Board will provide a hearing order within the month which will grant Enbridge a more specific time line,” Perret responded.

Councillor Illes asked about the progress of discussions between Enbridge and First Nation communities.

Perret said, “Discussions with Aboriginal communities have increased over the last four to five months. Some communities are resistant, some are questioning the project and some are also highly supportive.”

Councillor Illes also asked about the potential for municipal ownership in the pipeline.

Kinsley mentioned a one per cent of pre tax earning community fund that will be available. “This one per cent will be Enbridge’s contribution to things like hospitals, scholarships, emergency response and schools,” Kinsley added.

Kinsley said to Lakes District News that further details about the community fund are still up in the air.

“The project has to be approved yet and it will be months before anything can be determined,” he said.

“We are working on a premise that funds will be put back into the communities along the pipeline route, but it is yet to be determined who will receive the funds and how they will be allocated.”

Kinsley also said that the one per cent figure has been committed as it is a model that is used by other mainstream corporate companies that contribute back to communities.

There will also be $8 million in property taxes generated by the 270 kilometres of pipeline in the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako.

Last year Enbridge media relations spokesperson Alan Roth had also mentioned a separate municipal sharing agreement that he said would result in the Village of Burns Lake receiving a share in the property taxes, however the village said they were not aware of the program.

When Lakes District News requested more information, Roth clarified his statement by saying, “Enbridge would pay property taxes on the right-of-way footprint in accordance with the land assessment and property tax procedures.”

“While these taxes would be paid directly to the four Regional Districts in B.C. and the District of Kitimat we would anticipate that these tax revenues would benefit all the communities and rural areas within each of the Regional Districts.”

“It would be up to each Regional District to determine how best to use the new tax dollars provided by Enbridge should the pipeline project proceed,” Roth added.