Kamloops residents rally against Kinder Morgan Pipeline expansion

Mar 23, 2018 | 4:16 PM

KAMLOOPS — While protestors opposed to the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Pipeline in Burnaby were being arrested today, there was a less eventful protest held in Kamloops today.

Close to 40 peaceful protesters gathered outside MP Cathy McLeod’s downtown Kamloops office at noon Friday to voice their opposition to the Kinder Morgan Pipeline. According to event spokesperson Dan Hines, the protesters at the event were there to show support for keeping the waterways in the province clean.

“The group here today is really saying we don’t want to see this pipeline expansion happen,” Hines explained. “Showing up today with our bodies, our presence, to go on record about the fact that we just don’t think this project is in the interest of our people, or in the interest of our land and water.”

To conclude the event, organizers and participants brought a jar of water into McLeod’s staff at the office. The water was symbolic of the waterways and the resource that those opposed to the pipeline expansion hope to protect.

Hines believes those in opposition to the pipeline project are not against resource extraction, they would just like to see it done more sustainably.

“It’s the same problem we’re having in forestry when it comes to [exporting] raw logs,” Hines said. “Instead of thinking in the long-term about the fact that we’ve got this incredible non-renewable resource… we’re going to need oil, we’re going to need to refine it, we need it for the economy. Let’s look at the fact that eventually, we’re going to off fossil fuels, it’s going to happen a lot faster than I think any of us ever thought it would happen, so building more infrastructure, building more pipelines doesn’t make any sense.”