Living with Trans Mountain

Buried underground, it is nearly invisible. The only real giveaways are the white and yellow signs dotting the landscape along the Yellowhead Highway west of Edmonton. Markers that someone could follow all the way to the Pacific Ocean, if they were determined enough. 

The Trans Mountain pipeline runs about 1,000 kilometres from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C. Along the way, it passes through communities big and small and crosses the territories of dozens of First Nations.

When the valves open and the oil starts flowing Wednesday, the newly twinned Trans Mountain pipeline will carry nearly 900,000 barrels of bitumen from producers in Alberta to tanker ships on the coast each and every day.

Originally proposed by then-owner Kinder Morgan in 2013 and approved by the National Energy Board three years later, the expansion was nearly killed by legal challenges from the B.C. government, the City of Burnaby and environmental groups. By 2018, Kinder Morgan was ready to pull the plug on the project. Thats when the federal government intervened and bought the entire pipeline, with plans to build the expansion and then turn around and sell it. 

Since then, the cost has skyrocketed, growing from the original estimate of $7.4 billion in 2017 to more than $34 billion in 2024. Trans Mountain blames the overruns on extraordinary factors like the pandemic, extreme weather and evolving compliance requirements.

As the project dragged on, so did the rallies and protests for and against it. 

Rallying cries of no means no echoed across crowds of protesters in Burnaby carrying signs warning of climate change, risks to watersheds and insufficient Indigenous consultation. In Alberta, calls for economic development were backed by blaring truck horns and chants of build the pipe.

At a global energy conference in Houston in March, Trans Mountains chief financial officer, Mark Maki, said that the Trans Mountain expansion matters for Canada, and that the increased export capacity will mean better prices for oil producers, more jobs for Canadians and higher tax revenue.

Employees with Trans Mountain, and Im one of them, were happy, said Maki. Were getting to the end and thats a reason to be proud. Were doing something that, I think, is good for the country.

While the shovels are being stowed away and work camps disbanded, a new reality persists for people who live and work with Trans Mountain beneath their feet, regardless of how they feel about the project.

About 90 kilometres west of Edmonton is the community of Gainford. 

Bordered on the north by the picturesque Isle Lake and home to just 118 people, the hamlet is a blink-and-youll-miss-it kind of place. 

Its also host to a Trans Mountain pump station, which keeps up pressure in the pipeline and the oil flowing west.

Dawn Watts grooms her horses and feeds her chickens a stones throw from that pump station. She owns Medieval Manor Gardens, a fledgling eco-tourism business that aims to connect people back to the land and nature with workshops and hiking tours. And to do that as sustainably as possible. 

Still, Watts said there is a need for projects like Trans Mountain. 

We all have to eat. We have bills to pay. Most of us drive cars. she said. A lot of things rely on oil and gas still.

Watts also hopes the pipeline will be safer than the alternative: shipping oil by rail. Back in 2013, some tanker cars derailed across the highway from her property, creating an inferno so ferocious it melted the siding of the house where she now lives.

But that doesnt mean she doesnt have concerns. 

With a high water table and Isle Lake nearby, a leak or rupture could have devastating consequences. But she still thinks the pipeline is the safer bet.

A pipeline break or something like that is unlikely to happen. You're probably more likely to get hit by a car crossing the road, so youve got to put it in perspective, right?

At the end of the day, Watts sees Trans Mountain as a stepping stone towards a greener future as other energy sources become more practical. For her, its not a question of if clean energy becomes the norm, but when.

There's other things, hydrogen and other alternatives coming. But this one pipeline is going to keep us going, I would imagine, for quite some time until these other alternatives can be put in place.

Go a little further downstream on the pipeline and the question is: Whats next?

A steady stream of customers filters in and out of Pattersons Parts Supply in Edson. They chat and share a laugh with owner Don Patterson amid rows of gleaming wrenches and tubes of mechanical grease.

The oil industry has deep roots in this part of Canada.

It has been a big part of our lives and it has meant a lot to our families and to the past and to the future, said Patterson.

Even though Patterson wasnt directly involved with Trans Mountain, he said the massive project was good news for his store. He saw an uptick of about 30 per cent in sales when pipeline crews were working in the Edson area. Other businesses saw a boost, too. 

Everybody was really connected to it. And it was a real boost for everybody's sales, he said. It was a positive effect, for the most part, on everybody in town. So it was really good to have.

WATCH | An Edson business owner responds to pipeline critics:

Now that construction is wrapping up, that boom has faded. But Patterson remains optimistic about Edsons economic future. 

There's a lot of projects that come, he said. 

Whether it's mining, whether it's our power generation stations, there's always something that comes into our area or makes our area better.

As people in Edson look forward to the next big project, head toward the interior of British Columbia and theres a feeling that Trans Mountain could be the future. 

About 40 kilometres north of Kamloops, the pipeline has crossed the territory of the Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band for decades. 

Mike LeBourdais thinks they should own a piece of it.

Hes part of the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group, an Indigenously owned company created by First Nations leaders who share that goal. 

It has partnered with Calgary pipeline company Pembina to try to buy Trans Mountain. So far, about 40 other First Nations have signed on to the idea.

We live with the risk, all day, every day since 1954 [when the original pipeline was built]. But we've never had the benefit, he said. Let us have the benefit for the next 70 years and see how that works for us.

If the groups proposal to buy the pipeline goes ahead, LeBourdais envisions First Nations using the revenue from owning the pipeline for everything from environmental protection to providing elder care. 

I think it is reconciliation, he said. It hasn't been done on this scale before.

The Western Indigenous Pipeline Group is not the only Indigenous group looking to invest in the pipeline. Project Reconciliation, headquartered in Calgary, has its own proposal. 

Chairman Robert Morin says it is aiming for 100 per cent Indigenous ownership. 

Every First Nation has managed poverty since the signing of treaties and the establishment of this country. That has to change, said Morin.

WATCH | Indigenous pipeline ownership as way of reconciliation:

Other Indigenous people are opposed to the idea of Indigenous ownership. 

They think the environmental risk outweighs any economic benefits the pipeline might bring.

WATCH | An Indigenous woman cuts her hair to protest Trans Mountain:

Miranda Dick fought hard against the construction of the Trans Mountain expansion. In 2020, she cut her hair outside a Trans Mountain construction site where the pipeline runs under the Thomson River, an outward display of grief and loss. 

The Secwpemc matriarch and mother of six was arrested and charged with criminal contempt. Dick was found guilty and sentenced to 28 days in jail. But she has no regrets and plans to keep fighting. 

Her big concern: The impact a break in the pipeline could have on waterways in her nations territory. She said not enough consultation was done to protect her peoples way of life. 

This is a short-term gain for long-term harm that could happen to our people, she said.

Further down the line in Abbotsford, the Sumas First Nation has experienced Dicks concerns first-hand. 

Trans Mountain operates a tank farm on Sumas traditional territory.

Chief Dalton Silver said there have been four spills over the past two decades. He worries the expanded pipeline will cause even more problems.

There is something coming here that poses a big threat to the natural environment of our people and really could affect the livability of our homelands, he said. Of course I am opposed.

Still, Silver said he understands the economic draw the pipeline represents for the First Nations along its route. 

There are a lot of communities that are, you could say, hard up for funds, he said. They're looking for opportunities to try and generate some of their own revenue. The opportunity came up and I don't blame them.

The Sumas First Nation waited longer than many other First Nations, but ultimately did sign a benefit agreement with Trans Mountain. 

Its something Silver said he was personally against, but the majority of community members wanted. His position has not changed now that other First Nations are showing interest in buying the pipeline. 

Those guys are my good buddies, my bros, and they know I have opposing views and they still approach me and wonder if I am interested, he said. 

I have the old First Nation perspective that our obligation to our lands is to look after them.

Further down the line in Burnaby, a small cedar building stands in the shadow of Trans Mountains massive tank farm. 

Known as a watch house, it was constructed by members of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation. 

Such structures were traditionally used to keep a lookout for invading boats on British Columbias coastal inlets. 

Today it watches over construction work at the expanding oil facility.

We will be here fighting this as long as we have to be here fighting it, said Jim Leyden, the elder who cares for the watch house.

Hes not alone in that sentiment in Burnaby. Construction may be nearly finished on the Trans Mountain expansion, but many people in this coastal city are not ready to give up their opposition yet. For them, the threat of an incident is too real and the consequences too serious to back down. 

Tara Shushtarian lives next door to the tank farm, not far from the watch house, in an area she calls the incineration zone. Now there are more tanks and theyre bigger, and Shushtarian worries that if something happens she wont be able to evacuate with her husband in time.

Maybe in a couple of years we'll have to think of moving out, because it's just too unsafe. We'll be much older. We wont be able to run if there's an incident, she said.

To try to address concerns for people like Sushtarian, Trans Mountain has detailed emergency and evacuation plans for the tank farm publicly available on its website. 

The company points to its safety record and says it has never had a storage tank fire since it started operating the original line in 1953.

The Trans Mountain pipeline ends at Westridge Marine Terminal in Burrard Inlet, where oil is loaded onto tankers. The expansion means more oil flowing to the terminal and more tankers in the inlet up from around five to as many as 34 each month. 

For marine scientists, that means more risk.

Any spill would be catastrophic. A large spill would be absolutely cataclysmic, said Peter Ross, senior scientist at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Its happened once before. In 2007, an excavator digging a trench for a new storm sewer ruptured the original line, spraying crude oil over nearby homes and forcing 250 people to evacuate. The oil flowed down into nearby Burrard Inlet, prompting a massive cleanup effort.

WATCH | An ocean pollution expert explains what an oil spill does to marine life:

But Ross said once the oil is in the water, it is difficult and dangerous to clean up and can have long-term consequences for sea life

The biggest concern is going to be around the effects on small developing fish and invertebrates, as they reproduce and as they try to grow in a soup that is very harmful to their health, he said.

There are worries about climate change, too. Dr. Tim Takaro researched its impact on human health during his academic career at Simon Fraser University. These days, he can be found with other protesters in Burnaby outside a branch of RBC a significant financier of fossil fuels in the world by some reports urging customers to take their money elsewhere.

This is about stopping the money pipeline, said Takaro. People do not understand the urgency of climate change and what is coming for us if we dont turn off the spigot.

Mike McKenzie remembers what it was like to protest the Trans Mountain expansion outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2022. 

Whenever I came here it was a big thing, he said.

It was like, whoa, there are a lot of people here. There is a lot of energy here.

For McKenzie, the completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline is a pivotal moment in his life. The Secwpemc knowledge keeper was not wholly opposed to the project. 

Instead, he was fighting to have [his] people honoured in the process. 

Now, he reflects on the more than 10 years he spent focused on the project nearly one-third of his life.

Hes ready to move on. 

I would definitely change my approach if I was protesting in the future, he said. 

It was hard on me, it was hard on my family, it was hard on the people that I care about.

McKenzie thinks there are lessons to be learned from Trans Mountain.

I want people who are so on one side or the other to remember that we are people, that we are in this together, he said. 

I would like to see that people that are in those spaces give a little to each side because we are in this together, whether we are on the same side or not.

Editing | Janet Davison

A previous version of this story included a reference to a 2023 report identifying RBC as the No. 1 financier of fossil fuels in the world. After publication of that report, its authors updated their information regarding RBC with corrected data, and it was shown as No. 5.