By Sheldon Spackman - rdNewsNOW

Red Deer rallies to support Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion

May 5, 2018 | 10:04 PM

RED DEER —  Roughly 150 people took to Red Deer’s south hill on Saturday to rally community support for the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project.

Organized by Red Deer-based Rally 4 Resources, the grassroots event held at Gaetz Avenue and 32 Street saw many supporters from the UCP come out over the noon hour as the party’s founding AGM is taking place nearby at the Sheraton Hotel May 4 – 6.

Supporter Haley Wile says the group has previously hosted similar rallies in places such as Vancouver and Saskatchewan in hopes of giving like-minded Canadians an outlet to show their support for the country’s energy and resource sectors.

“The value of this pipeline is jobs, it’s getting our resources to tide water,” explains Wile. “It’s mostly jobs I think is the biggest thing that we want because if this doesn’t go through, we only have one customer and that’s the United States. That really hurts us, we’re making them rich and not us and we need to take care of our own people with our own clean resources.”

She says the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion would benefit all Canadians and should be supported.

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“Canada has the highest regulations and we are the cleanest and most ethical oil and resources in the entire world and I say that confidently,” states Wile. “I think there’s lots of misconceptions. I think lots of people think that more people are against it than are for it and what we’re trying to provide is an outlet for people to come and show their support.

“Regular, everyday people want this. We want jobs and we want to work and we know that we have the best product and we’re confident and we stand behind it.”

Saturday’s rally follows Kinder Morgan’s announcement on April 8 that it would be suspending all non-essential activities and related spending on the Trans Mountain Expansion Project due to continued opposition from the B.C. government.

On April 18, the company issued a statement saying, “We remain clear and steadfast in our two objectives – the ability to construct in B.C. and to protect our shareholders. We are actively engaged with the Federal and Alberta provincial governments and those conversations will continue in good faith. Nothing has changed in that regard.”

According to the Trans Mountain website, the original pipeline was built in 1953 and continues to operate today. The expansion would essentially twin the 1,150 km pipeline from Strathcona County near Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.

Officials says it would create the capacity to move from currently transporting 300,000 barrels of oil per day to 890,000 barrels of oil per day to the west coast and access additional markets for Canadian products outside the U.S.

The Government of Canada granted approval for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project on November 29, 2016.