Submitted. With less than a week left until election day, the PIPE UP Network has pulled together score cards on the positions of the candidates in numerous ridings between Hope and Langley on the controversial Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion plans to export tar sands diluted bitumen. Members of the Network documented communications with their candidates along with a critique of the party platforms to pull together documents that highlight where their candidates stand on key concerns.
“By working together we not only ensure that a range of candidates hear our concerns with Kinder Morgan, but also that we can amplify our work by creating a record of where the candidates stand.” asserts Jordan Wilson, Yarrow resident and member with the PIPE UP Network. “These score cards are an easy to read, easy to share tool, to better understand how the candidates will address the risks from existing and proposed transport of a heavy toxic oil product that runs by our local schools, across our drinking water sources and through highly populated residential and commercial areas “
PIPE UP Members have been active throughout the ridings of Hope, Chilliwack, Agassiz, Abbotsford, Mission, and Langley, attending local all candidates meeting and getting answers from their candidates on a range of questions that relate to Kinder Morgan.
“Pipelines have been a hot issues this election, however many residents in the Valley still don’t know how much we have to lose.” comments Lynn Perrin, Abbotsford Member of PIPE UP. “Much of the election conversation is focused on the risks with tanker traffic, but for us in the Lower Mainland the issue is pipeline spills that could devastate our families and our way of life. The Kinder Morgan pipeline is 60 years old and yet they have started to pump highly toxic diluted bitumen without any upgrades to the pipe, monitoring regulations, or first responders. Now they want to build another pipeline to pump more of this lethal product? We need to ensure we have elected officials who are going to pay attention to this issue and speak up for our local needs and well-being.
For downloadable PDFs of the score cards simply click here.