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For Immediate ReleaseMarch 7, 2014
NEB fails Ontario with Line 9B Approval
Queen’s Park – Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner issued the following comment in response to National Energy Board’s conditional approval of Enbridge’s Line 9B proposal:
“The National Energy Board has failed the people of Ontario by approving Enbridge’s Line 9B. The health and well being of people and communities should be the government’s top priority, not the interests of big oil.
Pumping dirty oil through an aging pipeline not designed to handle such corrosive material is not in the public interest. It is dangerously irresponsible that the NEB did not at the very least require a hydrostatic test for leaks in the 38-year old pipeline or even require Enbridge to carry sufficient insurance.
The province of Ontario should have demanded an Environmental Assessment.
This decision is especially outrageous given Enbridge’s poor spills and safety record. Enbridge is still trying to clean up its 2010 dirty oil spill that dumped 3 million litres of dilbit into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. The clean up costs exceed $1 billion.
Now the NEB will allow Enbridge to pump 300,000 barrels of dirty oil through Ontario everyday. This decision threatens our water, farmland, economy and communities.
I’m deeply disappointed that Premier Wynne did not speak out forcefully against Line 9. Her October 2013 visit to Alberta, where she essentially endorsed the flow of dirty oil through Ontario, made it more difficult to raise serious objections to this risky project.
She failed to put the people of Ontario first. We should expect better from government leaders.”
Mike Schreiner will be available for comment at the rally at Queen’s Park, today at noon.
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