By Chad Klassen

Trans Mountain expansion could start in Kamloops by summer if project approved

Mar 8, 2019 | 4:26 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has faced a number of hurdles. Opposition from various groups, including the provincial government and a federal appeal court ruling that found shortcomings in the federal government approval.

The project was re-approved by the National Energy Board last month, and now plans are in place to proceed once the federal government meets the requirements set out by the court.

Trans Mountain local representative Kate Stebbings updated Kamloops city council earlier this week on where the project is at. She says if the project receives official approval, which is expected on May 22, work could start in Kamloops as early as this summer. 

“It doesn’t mean that you’re going to see shovels in the ground,” said Stebbings. “Some of the early work, we will be doing things like fencing, surveying, line-locating, making sure we’re not going to hit anybody else’s utility when we move through things. Looking at the contamination area at the airport, making sure we understand the scale and scope of that. It will be a slow ramp-up in terms of what it feels like to the community.”

Stebbings says one-third of the $7.4 billion expansion project will be done in the B.C. Interior. Kamloops has already signed a community benefit agreement worth $700,000 and is expected to double its annual tax revenue during construction.

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Council asked questions about spill response in the area. Trans Mountain also reaffirmed the route will not impact the Westsyde neighbourhood, going through Lac Du Bois instead.

“This was a result of some early conversations we had with the city, with Westsyde neighbours, and we started to learn a little bit more about concerns and interests,” noted Stebbings. “One of the challenges through Westsyde is, we have two lines existing already. That second line, built in 1957, sometimes it was put in the same right-of-way and sometimes it wasn’t, so as we more through Westsyde we actually have times we’re in the same right-of-way and sometimes when we diverge. It would’ve been extremely disruptive to residents to the community to find a new right-of-way through that region.”