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Enbridge question remains unanswered with village council

Will Burns Lake be revisiting Enbridge Northern Gateway question? And will we get an answer?

Few topics will pack council chambers in Burns Lake like Enbridge Northern Gateway.

Other municipalities and First Nations throughout the Northwest have taken formal positions on Enbridge Northern Gateway, and VBL council has in the past felt pressure from within its ranks well as from concerned area residents to take a formal position on the project, either for or against it.

Two municipalities stand out for their stated neutrality on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline proposal.

Village of Burns Lake council and Village of Kitimat council had both independently agreed to wait until after the recommendations of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel (JRP) had been released before taking a position on the issue. Both councils supported the process; neither wanted to preclude the work of the JRP panel.

The JRP released its final report on Dec. 19, 2013, recommending the project proceed provided more than 200 stipulations be met.

The municipality of Kitimat will hold a plebiscite - a non-binding referendum - on April 12, 2014 to gauge their electorate’s position on Enbridge Northern Gateway.

Kitimat town council has not said what they will do with the results once they come in, so they haven’t necessarily bound council decision to the results of the plebiscite.

The poll, reads a notice on the District of Kitimat website, fulfills a Jan. 16, 2012 Council resolution to survey the residents of Kitimat following the conclusion of the JRP process for the project.

In Burns Lake, the question of whether or not village council should take a position on the Enbridge proposal, and if it should, what that position might be, has been a drawn-out process, and never promised a plebiscite.

Between August 2011 and June 2012, VBL council discussed on several occasions how to proceed on the question, heard from numerous public delegations calling for VBL council to take a stand, and held two committee of the whole meetings to garner public opinion and discuss the issue as a council.

Cut to the June 12, 2012 regular council meeting which followed the second committee of the whole meeting on the same day. The committee meeting was well-attended by area residents and three official First Nation delegations. None of the public delegates spoke in favour of the Enbridge proposal.

Susan Schienbein, VBL councillor at the time, had heard enough by that point to be comfortable with tabling a motion to oppose the pipeline project.  The motions was seconded by then counc. Quinten Beach.

The sitting VBL council then also included current counc.. Frank Varga , John Illes, and Mayor Luke Strimbold. Illes was away on work-related business on that day and so unable to vote.

Schienbein and Beach voted in favour of the motion to oppose Enbridge while Varga and Strimbold voted against the  motion.

A tied-motion is a defeated motion, so the motion to oppose the project was defeated.

This isn’t to say that council therefore supported Enbridge Northern Gateway.  Speaking of the then underway JRP hearings, Strimbold said, “There is a process in place, which is the joint review panel… I think we should make a decision based on that information.”

Since then, council has not reconsidered its position on Enbridge Northern Gate way, instead describing itself as neutral on the question. Burns Lake council has, on occasion, reiterated that it was waiting for the conclusion of the JRP process before making any pronouncements.

“To date the VBL council has remained neutral,” Strimbold said recently. “Council will continue to engage with all our stakeholders, including First Nations to better understand the conditions the JRP has imposed in order for the Northern Gateway Project to proceed.”

Now that the JRP has wrapped up its investigations and issued its report it remains to be seen what council’s position on the question is, or whether or not the question should be reintroduced.

“I do not fully understand what impact a municipal non-binding referendum would have on the decision that the federal government will be making later this year,” said Mayor Strimbold.  “I will be watching the work of Kitimat to learn more.”

Even if it does re-introduce the question, Burns Lake council will face the same situation it did in June of 2012 when it was short-handed a councillor.

Councillor Illes would have to recuse himself from any vote on Enbridge Northern Gateway.

“Unfortunately I would not be able to vote,” Illes said recently. “The ministry of forests and lands is responsible for Enbridge permitting so I would be in a conflict of interest situation.”