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I deserve an open house

Editor: This letter concerns the Coastal GasLink Project proposal and the lack of information being provided to the public.

Editor:

This letter concerns the Coastal GasLink Project proposal and the lack of information being provided to the public and landowners that live within the impact zone of TransCanada’s work activities, including their consultants’ field work this summer. I live within 3km of the TransCanada Coastal GasLink ROW/right-of-way on the Buck Flats Road, south of Houston, B.C. And yet, I do not deserve an open house?

There has been a false criteria for the open house/s sponsored by the B.C. environmental assessment office (EAO)….that is, that this TransCanada Project proposal is not  near Houston or for that matter, Smithers. The construction phase of this project will affect all communities in the vicinity, in a regional sense….and also in a very personal local aspect, my life and those lives of many of my neighbors. Industrial traffic, demands upon our health care systems, a 1,500-person work camp in close proximity to my home, immediately located upon Buck Flats Road/Parrott Trail forks…..all these and many other adverse impacts need to be discussed prior to the final design, legal description and EAO approvals for this project proposal.

And yet we now see that TransCanada has not held open houses so that we can provide what the company states is their desire for input and for consultation (that is a two-way-street). This is unacceptable and prevents the intent of the B.C. environmental assessment act from being completed. How will we view proper maps? How will we provide local knowledge and our own concerns, to create a project that minimizes adverse impacts?

These LNG pipeline project are so huge and will impact so many aspects of our lives here….and yet, if our private land does not fit into the arbitrary polygons of direct impact, we are ignored, we are invisible. We live here. Our roads will be used for pre-construction and construction phases; our backcountry roads will be closed, as needed; information will be provided to the regional district only even though these elected and appointed people have no expertise in even reviewing a major project proposal, and they/our regional district will share no information with any of us living here on Buck Flats Road.

We require an open house in Houston (and in Smithers) ….. one that is well advertised and accessible to all, including shift workers and their families. We require open lines of communication and methods that will respect our interests, our local knowledge and our lives here.

Signed,

Glenda Ferris