Trans Mountain Pipeline could transform local job market

Nov 30, 2016 | 3:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is one step closer to becoming a reality. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given the project the go-ahead, and while his isn’t the final word on the expansion, people in Kamloops are already buzzing about what the project could mean in terms of the environment, the economy, and employment.

Kamloops Chamber of Commerce president Ryan Scorgie believes the project will create jobs for skilled workers in the community.

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“You’re going to see initial job creating as they start to do the development of the project,” Scorgie said. “We’ll see that here in Kamloops as it’s a larger community for people to be based out of. With the number of workers that we have that work out of Alberta that have seen a downturn in the Alberta economy, hopefully we’ll see some more people here in Kamloops that are able to stay and have jobs here locally.”

Green Party candidate for Kamloops-South Thompson Donovan Cavers says that employment boost will most likely be short-lived.

“We will have some jobs in the short-term with the construction,” he said, “but long-term there’s only a few maintenance jobs, it’s not that significant of a long-term impact for the local area.” 

Cavers says processing the oil product locally could create jobs and eliminate the need for the pipeline expansion. 

“If we were processing and concentrating the product we could actually be shipping it through the existing pipeline … What we should be doing is doing more of the processing here at home, and then we could ship a concentrated product to market rather than basically shipping the jobs out.” 

The City of Kamloops will reap the benefits from an agreement signed with the Trans Mountain Expansion Project in Feb. 2015.

“The impact to Kamloops would be the contribution agreement of $700,000 for a community improvement project,” said Kamloops mayor, Peter Milobar, “as well as around 1.2 million dollars a year of increased property taxation.” 

Those extra revenues create an opportunity for improvements to be made to the Tranquille Airport Corridor.

“Some of the things that are being looked at for this airport corridor are going to be beautification improvements,” said Kamloops North Shore Business Improvement Association president, Bryce Herman, “certainly sidewalks, improvements to the road itself, all of those things are going to be part of what we’re looking at, and some of that will be just beautification in ways of gardens and so on along the corridor and right across the board.” 

If the project goes ahead, the pipeline, which runs from Burnaby to Alberta, will triple in capacity. The current line runs through Kamloops’ Westsyde neighbourhood, but the proposed expansion would run through the Lac du Bois Grasslands.

The provincial government still needs to give their approval before the project can move forward.