Joint Review Panel Hearings Prince Rupert, B.C. May 24-25, 2012

The National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel (JRP) community hearings began in Prince Rupert on May 24, 2012. In an attempt to provide you with a sense of what is being said at these hearings, we have selected excerpts from the presentations and will continue to do so through to the end of the hearings in July. For those of you wishing to read the complete text of a statement, it is available on the JRP website: gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/clf-nsi/prtcptngprcss/hrng-eng.html

“If the Enbridge Northern Gateway project goes ahead and a supertanker has an accident on our coast, Enbridge will not be responsible. The tanker, as an owner/operator business can go bankrupt. Powerful legal forces representing political and business interests will move in with a great deal of fanfare, take over control at first, and then leave to their offices elsewhere. Political and legal arguments will be followed by the media and we’ll be left to deal with the long-term human and environmental consequences, just as Hartley Bay is doing now following the sinking of the Queen of the North, but a supertanker accident would be much, much worse.” – Peggy Davenport

“The accident was the first of four, involving ferries operating in the north coast over a period of 40 years. There was the QPR on Haddington Reef, that was August 11, 1967; there was the Taku on West Kinahan Island, July 29, 1970; there was the QPR again in Gunbolt Passage, August 25, 1982; and finally there was the Queen of the North on Gil Island, March 22nd, 2006. That averages to a major marine accident every 10 years. Had those accidents involved a VLCC we would be looking at spills of up to 220,000 tonnes, which was the size of the spill from the Amoco Cadiz off the coast of Brittany, France in 1978. It oiled 360 kilometres of coastline. Some might point out to me that the new modern ships GPS -- with GPS and better training for the crews would fare better. To that I reply that on January 13th, 2012, this year, the Costa Concordia, a very modern cruise ship, impacted rocks on an Italian island. Lives were lost. The ship sank. I would point out that no matter how modern and sophisticated the navigational equipment, it can encounter a lapse in human judgment.” – David Cook

“Our society needs to transition away from oil-dependent sources of supply for our food. It’s ridiculous when a cucumber in my grocery basket comes from Mexico, the red pepper comes from Israel, the garlic comes from China and the apples come from New Zealand. How does this possibly make any economic or environmental sense? What happens when we eventually run out of oil and can no longer import food from far-away places? We need to return to locally grown and produced seasonal foods, both for our health and for the health of our planet. In north coast B.C. a sustainable locavore diet includes foods such as salmon, halibut, seaweed and shellfish, to name just a few. Allowing hundreds of supertankers to traverse the waters of north coast B.C. each year greatly increases the chances of an oil spill, thus jeopardizing the abundant marine food resources upon which so many depend, both human and non-human.” – Kaeleen Foote

“So, my message for the government is; it’s the job of the government to balance short term and long-term interests to protect our natural resources, as well as to promote economic development. Of course, I understand the Canadian government has to partner with business and industry. You can’t just sit back and say; well, we’re going to go back 200 years and live they way people lived 200 years ago. You can’t do that. But does our government always have to take the short end of the stick? We need the government to have some backbone. Find ways to stand up to business, and make business be truly liable for people who get sick from exposure to toxins, from the damage to the marine environment.” – Larissa Goruk

“Everyday I pass by our great blue heron colonies, and I wonder what their experience will be. Often a boat will dump its bilge water in the harbour and the oils drift up on the shore. I think one of the many important facts to bring forward when discussing protection of our habitat is that the great blue heron, ardia herodias, is on B.C.’s blue list of vulnerable species. This means that the British Columbia Wildlife Act and the Federal Migratory Birds Convention Act protect these birds and their nests and their eggs and habitat. But do they? There are a few reasons why these birds need protection. There are decreasing numbers of the great blue heron in B.C., due mainly to human activity. You can imagine the devastation of the birds when any spill near the coast or in the ocean takes place. These birds feed in the tidal flats at low tide. They are fishers, and can be seen with small fish hanging from their beaks.” – Carol Brown

“So I think the human spirit will be hurt severely. And emotionally, mentally, psychologically this could be a real kicker for us as a human race. I think it’d really hurt our spirits if we were to say yes to something like this. We could say yes to something that’s very positive and would bring us further in our evolution rather than just taking a step back and destroying -- yeah, taking a step backwards into the, you know, Dark Ages of technology which are obviously, you know, polluting our world and our souls as well because what we do to the environment we do to ourselves. And yeah, I really think we should look at that.” – Christa Barette

“If Enbridge gets a toe-hold on the north coast at the expense of everyone and every other industry, the other oil corporations will be coming. Now that the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction has been conveniently rendered non-existent by the current government, these oil corporations will begin fracking and drilling on the Hecate Strait, and beyond, in my worst nightmare. Oil is king. Foreign corporate investment in our oil reserves exceeds our own national holdings. We have sold the majority of what petroleum is left underneath our soil, and it is not unreasonable to assume that the oil underneath our seas is now on the bidding block. Our dependency on oil is the challenge of our lives and if we don’t deal with this issue it will be too late to hand it over to the next generation.” – Wendi McKim

“Back in February, my husband Marty was an intervenor and made a presentation to you on how we gather and enjoy the food from the land and the water, and how much our family and friends enjoy being out on the water. It was my daughter and myself who woke up very early in the morning to make all that sushi and prepare the food which you, the Panel, and many others in the room enjoyed. Remember how tasty the moose sausage and venison pepperoni was. Remember how tasty the crab dip was. Remember the fresh water you drank that my husband stretched out and got soaked under the waterfall, along the Skeena River. It’s our dream to have a future generation to be able to continue gathering the food and I thank the Tsimshian Nation for giving us the opportunity to be able to do that for our family. The risk of a pipeline tanker oil spill will jeopardize this dream.” – Mae Jong-Bowles

“I know the people of northwestern British Columbia to be united in the protection of our homeland. Despite the great unity amongst communities and neighbours here, I feel bombarded, helpless and confused. I’ve signed petitions, marched in protest, shared links on Facebook, educated myself on issues and now here I am today. I will always try and do what I think is right for my homeland. I don’t have the stories and centuries to go back on as local First Nations do here but my voice should count for something. This project puts my home here at risk. There are countless accidents that have happened over the years. Who is accountable? Who in their right mind would want to be accountable for such things? I’ve heard stories about large corporations barely helping at all after massively destructive incidents. What makes this time, this place, this company, any different?” – Ocean Rutherford

“So let me start off by saying that I am in support of an economic boom in northern B.C. I run a family business and Prince Rupert has been strapped financially for so long that I would love to see an economic boom up here. But, I am not in support of any economic projects that will sacrifice the wide and natural untouched terrain that we are so lucky to have up here. People live up here because they like the fact that there are so many rivers, trees, wildlife, outdoor activities right here at our doorsteps. We are fortunate enough to live next to a river as beautiful and as natural as the Skeena River is. And apparently the Skeena River is rated one of the top 10 drives in North America. Of all rivers of this magnitude in the world the Skeena is a rarity and as one of the most natural rivers in the world. There is so much life in this natural and beautiful watershed/ecosystem, I’m sure that all communities along the pipeline feel the same about their watersheds and ecosystems as we do. I don’t understand why we need to introduce such a toxic environment to such natural terrain when we have other options.” – Marc Joseph Page

“So with so much opposition and standing on this side of the issue, one has to wonder where the power lies in Canada. There are federal, provincial, municipal, First Nation and cultural leaders all coming out in official opposition. There have been demonstrations orchestrated all over the province, the country, in the United States and in Europe. Individuals and families who live here are opposing. And isn’t this how democracy is supposed to work? The people of a country use their voice and the government listens. Or are the days of corporate power taking over in Canada? As another Canadian, Joni Mitchell said: ‘Pave paradise and put up a parking lot.’ Or in this case, tar sands and pipelines and tankers and things that are more dark and intrusive and dangerous than parking lots.” – Sheri Disney

“You know, I could go on, but my point is to illustrate that this project not only fails to make its case economically, benefits versus risks, but it suffers from a severe lack of integrity and transparency, which many of the intervenors and speakers have testified to, and that translates into a lack of respect. I say this both as a concerned individual and, professionally, as someone whose job it is to support sound decision-making for sustainable oceans. The failure of this process to address these issues will continue to erode the public trust and the legitimacy of the process itself, leading to a loss of social licence. Without social licence, everyone suffers. This creates a chill effect on all development. Communities become cynical and resigned, this is what I’m hearing, and across the country. Canada looks bad on the world stage and worst of all, for me, young people become disengaged and disenfranchised from their own future. That’s the cost of losing credibility in public process.” – Michael Ambach

Another aspect to look at is the company itself, which I’ve done a bit of research on. And how many oil spills has Enbridge had? Well, according to the research I have done, about enough to choke out an ecosystem. That’s about 600 spills -- 600 -- sorry, 610 spills between 1999 and 2008 …. Six hundred and ten (610) is a number that cannot be taken lightly. These 610 spills have released 31,332 barrels that have devastated wetlands and waterways, one of these which could be my own backyard. These numbers are far from reassuring for me.” – Julie Bruneau

“I would like you to know that it is food from the sea that has supported this community and surrounding First Nations villages through hard times, and continues to do so. Lingcod, halibut and salmon put up for the winter is even more of a treasure nowadays, if you were lucky enough to have some sort of connection to those that still fish. My family, living south, know what a gift it is to have a case of jarred salmon, unheard of in the fast-paced city. To coastal people, seafood represents, plain and simple, food security. I believe that source would all come to an end if there were to be a marine oil spill on the north coast along Enbridge’s proposed tanker route, because I believe oil spills would become regular events.” – Leslie Rowlands

“Earlier this year, I worked on the COSCO Yokohama, a modern 80,000-tonne container ship which lost 29 containers 100 miles off Prince Rupert. I talked to various crewmembers. One 30-year officer said he had never had an experience like it. A mayday was transmitted. The chief engineer said it was the worst day in all his life. A one-tonne motor was bouncing around the engine room like a ping-pong ball. Huge spare pistons which had been fitted and bolted in at the shipyards were coming loose. The engines cut out, I believe, 11 times because the vessel was heeling over more than 35 degrees, which as far as the instrument measured, and the pumps were designed to cut out at that point. So the engine was cutting out. Several crewmembers thought they were going to die. This region is prone to extreme weather conditions; 100-mile-an-hour winds are common. I’ve gone through the Douglas Channel several times. The weather there is unpredictable and violent.” – Ian Dobson

“The entire eastern half of the country doesn’t use Canadian oil, where almost -- most Canadians live, you know, like Ontario, Quebec and everything east they’re using foreign oil. Why don’t we put a pipeline in that direction? At least it won’t go through the watershed where there’s 100 million bucks worth of salmon every year coming out of there and here. There’s flat land east of Edmonton. You don’t have earthquakes like you do out here. You don’t have landslides like you do here. What’s the point of sending all that insane amounts of money buying foreign oil when we’ve got it here in this country and we’ve got refineries that could be used, which aren’t being used or could be built that aren’t being built? It just doesn’t make any sense, all that money leaving the country like that, you know.” – Keith Isherwood

“I know that many people are thinking that our current technology, radar, GPS were invented to better navigate in any condition. Licensing and training requirements have been implemented so that people travelling on the water are properly educated to use new technology. These certificates cannot help anyone if the equipment is faulty. If the equipment is faulty, the crew are at the mercy of the weather conditions and regardless of training, experience or weather, the potential for an oil spill always exists because of human error. It is my understanding that there is no existing technology that would facilitate a clean-up in this area because our currents are too strong. A current clean-up method would be futile. Even if new technology was found tomorrow that could be used in our unique environmental conditions, our stormy weather conditions have the potential to delay many days, any clean-up efforts.” – Joyce-Lynn Mitchell

“So for me the (North Pacific) cannery represents a couple things besides a job; number one, that B.C. and Canada have, in large part, been founded on this amazing renewable resource, which is salmon, which still plays an important role in our local and national economies, as well as in our food security. Secondly, that tourism is an important economic stabilizer for the region and the country, and that the potential for the north coast is immense, especially with Prince Rupert’s capacity for cruise. I see a huge amount of risk to these things in the proposed Enbridge pipeline.” – Steve Milum

And to wrap up, I would also like to speak to -- about the interest of this project more broadly to Canadians. And I feel that as a Canadian myself who’s been paying close attention to this issue, that enabling -- this project will enable the exporting of large quantities of raw bitumen to foreign markets and I think that that brings with it lost upgrading jobs, increased oil prices and inflation, reduced control of our energy supplies, a continued reliance on unstable foreign oil supplies from the Middle East, Nigeria and Venezuela which all -- which has implications for our national security. We don’t know what the future holds. Self-sufficiency would be a blessing. And I also think that Canadians believe that the environmental risks are unnecessary, especially when we’re not even meeting our own energy supplies nationally – Greg Knox

“I have never, as a Canadian citizen, been ashamed of my country, but right now I am absolutely ashamed beyond words of my federal government. We have a Prime Minister who has stood up and apologized for the atrocities created by the residential school movement and the damage that it has done to the First Nations people. And then in a short period of time later launch a full-scale assault on the rights and titles of First Nations in this province who have never ceded any of their lands along this proposed route. And without our free informed and prior consent this project will not be allowed through any of our territories. The Haida’s have made it clear, not through our traditional waters. We stand, along with others from the fishing industry, and others, we stand with the Yinka Dene Alliance, the Frazer River declarations, the declarations of all coastal communities that have came on, interior from Terrace to Smithers, we stand together to send you this message and I hope that you listen to it.” – Arnie Nagy

“My husband works at the port and he tells me that they are not able to plough the snow off the dock into the sea. They’re told this because the salt and chemical contamination contained in the snow will pollute the sea. How can you compare this to a tanker oil spill?

The Department of Fisheries has restricted commercial fishing; there will be no fishing on the Skeena until July 12th this year in order to protect the Morice-Nanika sockeye stocks. This pipeline is to be built along the same river for 40 kilometres. My family plans to rebuild a cabin on a local lake that has a couple of small salmon runs, and we have to build our cabin at least 10 metres from the foreshore to protect salmon habitat and yet a pipeline can be built through major river systems. I hardly need to remind anyone of the oil pipeline spill into the Pine River that forced Chetwynd to find a whole new source of municipal water. DFO calls this a major environmental catastrophe, yet they are going to permit pipeline crossings of many rivers and we can’t build a small deck on the edge of a lake. It just does not make sense.” – Christina Nelson

“I sit before you humbled, humbled by the people that have presented before me. These are people who live here, who just have ordinary lives like everyone else, yet believe and understand the integral part that this ocean plays in the roles of our lives and in the way that we conduct ourselves. I’ve spent inordinate amounts of time on the water here. I know it in all its moods. This is an incredibly magnificent place, not just in its beauty, but also in its fury. This is a place that does not suffer fools kindly, which brings me to my next point. The Northern Gateway Project itself, which I believe is just that -- a fool’s errand. I cannot understand the economic basis that is being used to drive this -- this particular project. I do not understand the national interest that is supposedly driving it beyond the goals and the interests of those who live within this territory.” – Modestus (Des) Nobles

“Whether the project is in the public interest; well, the voices of all Canadians are not going to be consulted here, so the project cannot be construed as being in the Canadians’ public interest. It’s just plain and simple. Not everybody’s been asked, so it’s not in the -- you can’t say it’s in the Canadian public’s best interest. So none of the Canadians are being asked to vote on this, the people in this region are not being asked to vote on this. The native sovereignty in and over unceded territory is a constitutionally protected liberty in British Columbia. The vast majority of the native population do not want this pipeline. And as far as I can understand, this project, even to the talking of this project, is an infringement on the native sovereignty.” – Jonathan Seagull

“Enbridge’s obligation is to its customers and its shareholders, none of whom will be happy if profits evaporate in protracted, ineffective cleanup efforts, even as bitumen sludge sinks and beaches and rivers are irreparably damaged. These days, profits are privatized and losses are socialized. Our society, our culture and our ways of living face destruction if Enbridge is allowed to build this pipeline. If enormous ships filled with toxic, diluted bitumen are permitted to wend their way down the Douglas Channel and through the Great Bear Rainforest, through rocky narrow channels with as much room for error as the Queen of the North had on a calm March night, never mind in the middle of a raging gale.” – Frances Riley

“At this point I’d like to switch focus a little from what makes this coast so special to an event that did immense damage, not so far from here, in Prince William Sound, Alaska. I refer, of course, to the Exxon Valdez running aground on a reef on March the 24th in 1989. The third officer was in command on the bridge when he ran his tanker on the rocks of Bligh Reef. The tanker was only three years old, but a key instrument for navigation had been broken down for over a year, and Exxon had not bothered to fix it. The death toll -- well, just part of the death toll was a quarter of a million sea birds; 3,000 sea otters; 300 seals; 247 bald eagles; 22 orca, billions of salmon and herring eggs. A whole transient population of killer whales has died out in the lingering aftermath of the spill. A population which once numbered 346 whales have failed to reproduce since the spill. Birds, animals, and seafood continue to suffer from the shoreline contamination around Prince William Sound. And then there’s a human toll; there were several suicides over this. Dozens of workers involved in the clean-up efforts developed cancers relating to hydrocarbon toxicity.) – Douglas Thom

“Over the past 40 years, this region has had a constant history of opposition to tankers on the coast and I have a little anecdote that really brought that -- made me understand that. Last spring, in 2011, during the North Central Local Government Association Annual Meeting I was walking with the protesters down on the waterfront and I met Kris Olsen, who is a councillor for the village of Queen Charlotte, and he was carrying with him a photo of himself when he was six or seven years old protesting oil tankers on the coast here already, and he’s in his late thirties, I guess, now. So that really made me realize how much people here are against oil tankers on the coast. It was the case back then; it’s the case today and will be in the future.” – Arianne Loranger-Saindon

“I hear people say the threat of this project has united them, fishermen, business owners, artists, scientists, academics, doctors, nurses, people of all political backgrounds and even tar sands employees, and not least of all the First Nations who have signed the Fraser Declaration. Communities and organizations have turned down financial sponsorships from Enbridge. I can see that people feel anxious and threatened by this project, and most concerning, I hear that people say that they would rather lose their lives than lose their communities, culture and land and water to an oil spill.” – Liz Williams

“I am a teacher. I teach a lot of First Nations children. A lot of them are learning for the first time what their families have done for years in this area, and I am frightened for their future. I’m frightened that they’re -- perhaps when they’re my age, the resources that are now there for them and their families and they’re learning from their grandparents and their parents may not be available to them if there’s this continued use of oil tanker or if oil tankers should come into the territories or if there should be a spill in the pipeline. I’m also teaching these children about the government, about elected officials, democracy and the rights -- their rights and the rights of the future. I find it difficult to explain to them how that fits in with their existence when the government keeps changing the rules to fit their needs, to fit corporations and big business. How are they supposed to believe in the future that the people that they might put their trust in could pull the rug out from under them when it suits them. So that concerns me and how do I explain that to the children, that even though we are supposedly a democracy, that it keeps changing to fit other countries’ needs?” – Wendy Brooks

“From the research I have done, I have found that there is no effective way to clean up bitumen once it sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Then all those sea urchins, crab, halibut and all the bottom feeders of the ocean are directly polluted by this. The bottom line for me is that there isn’t a solution how to clean this up. You can’t send divers down, you can’t dredge it out. All these skimmers and soakers the professionals use are useless in this case because bitumen sinks. Once it’s done, it’s done. I have referred to literature that the oil spill response teams use, and have confirmed that there is no effective way to clean up bitumen.” – Sarah Burgess

“Take, for instance, the wild salmon run in the Skeena Watershed, an economy worth $110 million, according to a 2006 study. But if that’s what the salmon run in the Skeena is worth economically, what is it worth ecologically? The five salmon species in the Skeena Watershed on B.C.’s coast are this region’s keystone species. What that means is their presence in this ecosystem is essential as predators for some species and food for countless others. Without them, the whole web would come crashing down. Resident orcas, coastal wolves, eagles, ravens and bears ranging in colour from black to brown to spirit white depend on the salmon’s annual cycle of death and rebirth to sustain themselves through the year. And as salmon carcasses are dragged into the forest and decay, the nitrogen that they carry with them from their life in the sea enters the soil and feeds the growth of plants. On top of all that, the First Nations of this region have relied on this as a traditional food source since time before memory. When you think of how important the Skeena’s salmon are to life in the sea, in the river, on the land and in the community, 110 million seems like a pretty low value for a truly invaluable ecosystem component.” – Joe Daniels

“I actually sympathize with the proponents of this project. They mean well. They hold the opinion that a well-constructed technical appraisal of the pipeline will persuade people to their side. But we in the north don’t endure harsh climatic conditions and inflated cost of living, minimal health and educational opportunities and isolation out of necessity. We have a passion for the pristine wilderness and we value less the clinical, emotionless arguments made by well-meaning but unconnected technologists. It has been argued throughout the review process that the proponents have given a great deal of thought to the consequences of building and running the Gateway Project. They are quick to point out that any environmental mishaps will be dealt with expeditiously. Unfortunately, the reality is that the federal government, the provincial government and a host of industries have a history of walking away from pollution hotspots, both here in Canada and abroad.” – Peter Freeman

“I would argue that we need to consider the following: the transparency and integrity of the process; the public should have confidence that the Panel will consider all of the information brought before it; that all those with an interest in the project are able to make those interests and potential concerns known; and that the decision on the project will be free of political interference. After hearing statements from Cabinet ministers over the last six months, I’m not confident that this will be met. Further, I have friends who wanted to speak in this process, but they were worried about repercussions because of their role in the community and place of employment. How do you determine if something is in the public interest if the process is potentially compromised? We need to consider Aboriginal rights and title. The Panel does not have a fiduciary duty to First Nations and as such is not required to make decisions in their best interests. But Canada has recognized and affirmed Aboriginal rights and title. And we’ve heard from the First Nations in this area, and along the pipeline route, that those rights will be infringed upon if the project moves forward. It would not seem prudent or in the public interest to infringe on rights enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” – Devlin Fernandes

“I respect this environment and all that it provides. It gives me a home, a way to provide for my family. It feeds us, it sustains us. I’m taught by my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, Elders, Chiefs, to reverently respect the environment in which we live and all the life that is in it. That is what sustains it and thus it sustains us. Take only what you need, use what you take, do no harm, protect the environment and you will have an abundant life. This is a valuable lesson that is crucial to our way of life -- to everyone’s, even if you’re not aware of it. It is this belief that has given us this healthy, safe, abundant, cultural way of life for many thousands of years. This proposed project is the opposite extreme of this respect, because we all know there is no such thing as a safe pipeline or a safe tanker route; it is the nature of our world. This beautiful place we live in which can be so peaceful and amazing and gives us life, has the power to take it away and can be violent and unpredictable. So we respect it, not only out of gratitude for what it gives us, but for what it’s capable of. This proposed project would destroy the environment and much of the life that is in it. It would destroy our food source, our way of life here and our culture. I recommend to you not to approve this project.” – Christa Keating

“So I just would like to add a few points from my own unique perspective. It is formed by my background. I was born in Switzerland. I have studied chemistry over there. I came to Canada almost 20 years ago. I didn’t come as a foreign radical, I came as someone with employable skill or so the government at the time judged. I’m a scientist; that has formed me. I look at numbers, baseline, and specifically I’m an organic chemist. I’m used to working with all kinds of chemicals that are actually derived from crude oil. I appreciate what you can do with it; it’s wonderful stuff and you cannot yet produce something that is quite like crude oil. Something has happened in the last 60, 70, 100 million years that has produced this crude oil we haven’t quite found out how to imitate. But that would probably be an argument to think twice before shipping it abroad as fast as possible for quick gain. But let me tell you that crude oil, bitumen, it is nasty stuff. It will stick to anything. It will get dissolved in water. Parts of it get dissolved in water and also it can get ingested into the food chain; it can taint food or other stuff. Tainting doesn’t take much gram wise.” – Reto Riesen

“I’ve come here today to voice our emphatic and total opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway project. I’m probably not going to tell you anything you haven’t yet heard. I don’t have a unique or incredible story to share with you, but I wanted to bring you a perspective from an ordinary person leading an ordinary life in Northern B.C. This perspective is significant because there’s more of us than there are of people living in exceptional circumstances. There is a greater collective community in the north. It runs east-west along the length of Highway 16 from Massett to the Alberta border. The highway connects the towns. Each smaller place is connected by the greater community that defines the northern half of the province. Indigenous clans, families and friends are spread out through the various small towns and villages, and people travel between them regularly, forming a vibrant, thriving network. Within this community, there’s a huge amount of culture, and every person in each town is a part of it. I’m proud of the 130 First Nations and B.C. municipalities who have officially taken a “no” stance on this project. The oceans and rivers play a crucial role in the culture of our community. The Northern Gateway pipeline will irrevocably damage or destroy these waterways and remove the central pillar from our culture. By now, there can be no question that there will be problems and spills associated to the building and operation of the project. These spills will alter and possibly end our way of life.” – Heather Anne Thompson

“One of Enbridge’s solutions to this problem is to use large ship-assisting tugs hooked to the tankers. In the last two years, there have been two accidents that I know about involving freighters in this harbour with assisting tugs. In one instance, a freighter hit the beach at the grain terminal with tugs assisting while trying to dock a ship. This was a brand new freighter picking up its first load. The second incident took place at the coal terminal with a coal freighter. The assisting tug ended up being ran over sideways by the freighter and the bow of the tug went into the propeller of the freighter, nearly sinking the tug and rendering the freighter and tug useless until extensive repairs were completed to both vessels. Both of these freighters’ size pales in comparison to the size of the supertankers Enbridge is proposing.” – Shannon Vanderheide

“You have heard compelling testimony from people in Prince Rupert in the last two days. People have spoken about their deep intimate connection to place, their decision to live and raise families in the north coast and choice to not live in big cities. You’ve heard their concerns for the bears, whales, wolves, wildlife and their ability to exist in and experience unspoiled nature, their love and passion for working at sea and the bounty that we reap and all benefit from, the salmon, crab, halibut, seaweed. You’ve heard about people’s desire, dedication and steadfastness to continue to be marine stewards and stewards of the land that this proposal would affect. You’ve heard plenty about what ties us together. So what more could I possibly add? I, too, have tremendous connection to this place. I, too, love working at sea. I, too, fear what a small or catastrophic oil spill would do to our land, rivers, ocean, cultures, livelihood and our very essence of beings, our souls. What I do expect and hope is that you, as part of the human race, as Canadian citizens of this so-called democratic country, are brave enough to not allow the influence peddling of the current federal government and the narrow and archaic mandate of the National Energy Board to convince you to ignore rational thought. I urge you to stand up alongside of us.” – Jennifer Rice