Kinder Morgan working to meet Trans Mountain expansion conditions, says company president

Kinder Morgan says it is working hard to meet B.C.'s five requirements on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, after the B.C. government said Monday it does not support the project.

• Trans Mountain pipeline expansion not supported by B.C. government

Kinder Morgan president, Ian Anderson, joined RickCluffonCBC Radio One's The Early Editionto talk about how the company will meet the province's expectations.

Polak says Kinder Morgan hasn't provided enough evidence that it can meet its five conditions,particularly where oil spill response is concerned. What's your response?

I think that we're on multiple paths for a project like this. As far as the NEB process goes, we've provided extensive evidence of our plans, extensive evidence of what we'll do to ensure that the safety of the land and water is maintained.

The five conditions is not something that's found in the NEB review, specifically. They are five conditions that B.C. has, that they are applying to us, that we are working directly with them to satisfy them. Clearly the minister is saying we haven't yet gotten over the hurdle for her and we're going to be working very hard in the coming months to ensure we can provide that evidence.

What progress has Kinder Morgan made so far to meet those conditions?

Our First Nations consultation program has been extensive and all-consuming and we have a great deal of support there. We're lobbying the federal government who really have responsibility for the marine response capability, we're lobbying them very hard to put in place additional capacity, additional vessels, additional bodies and we feel that we're playing our role in that space very aggressively as well. We provided, just as recent as a week ago, an updated Conference Board of Canada report that projected in total 10,000 jobs in British Columbia over the next 20 years from our project.

• Trans Mountain expansion will reap long-term economic benefits, says Conference Board of Canada

How about the other conditions oil spill response, fair share of benefits?

On the marine side as I say, we're making specific recommendations with the federal government, and we're very much aligned with British Columbia on what we believe needs to be there. As far as condition five goes, the fair share of benefits, we certainly provided B.C. with a long list, and a very detailed list of the kinds of benefits B.C. will be receiving in terms of jobs and employment and tax revenue.

You say you're confident Kinder Morgan will be able to satisfy B.C.'s five conditions by the time the regulatory process is complete. How can you expect British Columbians to just trust you on that?

British Columbians should be looking to the government to ensure that the conditions have been met. It's the government's test. They're the ones who are going to evaluate our performance in what we provided. And I would expect the province to turnt to the people of British Columbian and confirm that we have met those conditions. This is a government of B.C., made-in-B.C. view of what's important to British Columbians ands they're going to be the assessors of whether or not we met it and I think British Columbians should look to them for that confirmation.

The province appears to have placed the onus on Kinder Morgan to meet their conditions. Yet, in a release yesterday, you say Kinder Morgan can't do it alone. Why not?

Marine response to an incident is federal authority. We need their cooperation to ensure the response regime is as B.C. desires and, rightly so, world class.

We also need the federal government to satisfy the duty to consult First Nationsand make sure that file is complete and thorough. By saying that there are others that are involved, we're nto passing the buck in any way, we're working directly with those authorities and agencies and federal ministers to put all the pieces in place and we take that responsibility.

Oil prices have been plummeting over the past year. Why would it still make sense for B.C. to accept this project?

The project that we're proposing and proposed several years ago now, is based upon current production levels. We're not talking about massive increases of production to fill this pipeline. The demands for this pipeline are multiples of the capacity that we have today and the barrels that we produce today are largely moved on rail. Our project is one I believe is designed to access global markets, get global prices, based on current production levels. These are difficult times for the industry, no doubt. What comes with low prices is an even lower price for Canadian crude given the discounts that they face by not having market access.

To listen to the full audio, click the link labelled: Kinder Morgan president on meeting B.C.'s conditions.