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NEWS RELEASE BC Chamber welcomes NEB approval of Trans Mountain Expansion

By May 19, 2016Uncategorized

NEWS RELEASE BC Chamber welcomes NEB approval of Trans Mountain Expansion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VANCOUVER, May 19, 2016 – The BC Chamber welcomes the National Energy Board’s conditional approval of the Trans Mountain expansion project and urges the federal government to accept the recommendation and approve the project. “This project is a big economic win for B.C. and for Canada,” said Maureen Kirkbride, BC Chamber interim CEO. “This project will bring construction, operations and other indirect jobs to B.C., while enabling our national oil resources to reach Asian markets.” The BC Chamber has been a vocal supporter of the need to add additional pipeline capacity to the West Coast.  “Oil is a major source of Canada’s resource wealth and it’s currently getting trapped inland,” said Kirkbride. “This is a national problem and we need to stand with our fellow Canadians – and in particular, our Albertan neighbours – to support solutions.” While the NEB decision is a step forward for the project, the federal government has announced that the project will now face an additional assessment process before it will receive a final decision. The BC Chamber will be closely watching this new process. “It’s always disappointing to see goalposts moved midway through an approval process,” Kirkbride said. “We urge the federal government to honour the original approval timelines so as to avoid the additional impact of project delays.” Kirkbride underlined the private sector’s need for certainty and predictability. “For businesses, the bottom line is always certainty and predictability,” she said. “For Canada to compete for private-sector investment dollars, we need to provide the predictable processes that businesses require – or we’ll sacrifice the jobs and economic benefits that those investments deliver.”

 

The BC Chamber is the largest and most broadly-based business organization in the province.  Representing more than 125 Chambers of Commerce and 36,000 businesses of every size, sector and region of the province, the BC Chamber of Commerce is “The Voice of Business in BC.”