The views of British Columbians on Enbridge's Northern Gateway project have not gone through a massive shift over the past year, a new Insights West poll has found.
In a new online survey, 50 per cent of British Columbians say they oppose Northern Gateway, while 35 per cent support it.
Two Insights West surveys conducted in July 2015 and January 2016 show that opposition to Northern Gateway has been at or near 50 per cent for the past 13 months.
Women (51 per cent) and British Columbians aged 18 to 34 (56 per cent) are more likely to voice opposition to the project.
Northern Gateway proposes the construction of a 1200-km twin pipeline that would carry diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to B.C.’s coast, passing directly through Burns Lake.
Earlier this summer, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned Northern Gateway's 2014 conditional approval, sending the matter back to the federal government for redetermination.
"We are awaiting an announcement from the federal government on their response to the recent decision from the Federal Court of Appeal," explained Ivan Giesbrecht, Northern Gateway's communications manager. "In the meantime, we are consulting with the Aboriginal equity partners and our commercial project proponents to determine our next steps."
According to Giesbrecht, Northern Gateway remains "fully committed" to building the project.
Insights West is a market research company based in Vancouver and Calgary, specializing in public opinion polls, consumer research panels and surveys. Poll results are based on an online study conducted from Aug. 19 to 23, 2016, among a representative sample of 827 adults in B.C. The results carry a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.