'Whatever it takes to stop them:' Tsleil-Waututh hold water ceremony in opposition to Kinder Morgan

Members of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation along with First Nations from across Western Canada and the U.S were joined by environmentalists and politicians on Sunday to bless the waters of Burrard Inlet and recommit themselves to stopping Kinder Morgan's approved expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline.

"Everything we got out of the water is good," said Rueben George with the Tseil-Waututh. "What Kinder Morgan is doing over there is not good."

Kinder Morgan has received federal approval and the blessing of the provincial government to proceed with the expansion of its pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby.

The company needs to meet 37 provincial conditions and 157 conditions from the National Energy Board.

If built, the$7.4-billion, 1,150-kilometre twinned pipeline willnearly triple the capacity of the existing pipeline to 890,000 barrels a day.

'Unacceptable'

Bless the waters

United against the project

20 year governmentrevenue:$46.7 billion

Elected to oppose

Paddle on

Construction of the Trans Mountain expansionis scheduled to begin in September, with an expected completion date of late 2019.

Kinder Morgan says during construction, the equivalent of 15,000 people will be working on the pipeline expansion, while the project will also create the equivalent of 37,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs per year during operations.

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