Enbridge lashes out at environmental groups over poll
Posted February 9, 2014 2:26 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Enbridge is claiming a poll from environmental groups released Tuesday that found a majority of us oppose the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline Project misleads the public. In a video released Sunday morning, the company claims the poll’s questions were the problem.
“Activist groups released a misleading poll claiming a majority of BC residents are against the Northern Gateway Pipeline,” said the voice over in the video. “How did the activists get the result they wanted? They misrepresented the facts.”
Enbridge says poll questions overlooked a promise to keep supertankers out of the B-C’s inner water passes. “Northern Gateway will not use the inside passage. We committed during the JRP process to not use the Grenville Channel and Laredo Sound.”
The company also takes issue with wording they say suggests the public haven’t been involved, adding “the joint review process was the most exhaustive and thorough review in Canadian history.”
The federal government will make a decision later this year on the 6.5 billion dollar pipeline project set to carry diluted bitumen from Alberta to Kitimat for use in Asian markets.
Meanwhile, activists are striking back. Ben West with ForestEthics, one of the groups called out by Enbridge, says they’ve used the poll with the exact same questions before without any comment from the pipeline company.
“It’s been done periodically throughout the campaign to try and get a sense of where people are at,” says West, adding this is not the first video Enbridge has released. “This is similar to me in a sense of a propaganda video that they put out [in 2012] where they showed all those missing islands. Enbridge seems to have their own version of the truth.” That video included an animation leaving out around 1-thousand kilometres of coastal islands.
Will Horter with Dogwood Initiative says promises in the video to keep tankers out of BC’s inner passes are not legally binding. “These aren’t pipelines to nowhere. Enbridge’s proposal would bring 220 oil supertankers a year to BC’s northern inside coastal waters. When the poll asked about the full scope of the proposal, including supertankers, British Columbians are always overwhelmingly opposed.”
Horter challenges Enbridge to team up with activists and craft another poll together to measure public support.
