A new TV, radio and print advertising campaign to sell British Columbians on the Northern Gateway pipeline foregoes any mention of Enbridge Inc. and instead focuses on the Prince George-based executive in charge of the project, according to mock-ups leaked to Greenpeace and provided to The Vancouver Sun.
A script for one of the new "Open to Better" campaign's TV spots involves vice-president Janet Holder and an orca whale and states that they both love and hate the same things, "like oil spills."
"Which is why as the leader of the Northern Gateway Pipeline, she wants to build a better pipeline. One that implements marine safety measures that are three times more than required. And monitored constantly. 24/7," one of the scripts given to The Sun reads.
Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations, said the campaign is a "last gasp" by the company to garner support for a project many British Columbians oppose.
"The company's got such a bad reputation out here that I don't blame them for doing that," Sterritt said. "I have a lot of respect for Janet Holder — she was a British Columbian at one time and she has come in from Toronto to try to rescue this project for this company and good for her.
"To put together a campaign that somehow characterizes Janet Holder as a person who wants to do what's best for the coast just doesn't make any sense, because the technology doesn't exist to clean [an oil spill] up once it happens."
Enbridge spokesman Ivan Giesbrecht said there wasn't a concerted effort to remove Enbridge's logo and name from the ad campaign, which is still in its final editing stages, but that the stand-alone Northern Gateway logo better represents the project's many partners. He said 26 First Nations across Alberta and B.C. have signed on as equity partners in the project, but couldn't provide a breakdown of how many were in each province. Last December, 130 B.C. First Nations signed The Save the Fraser Declaration, which states their growing opposition to construction of new pipelines in the province.
Giesbrecht would not say how much the campaign will cost. The company has said that a similar campaign last year cost them several million dollars but less that $5 million.
The federal Joint Review Panel will issue a recommendation on the project by the end of the year, and next year Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government will make the final decision on the project, which Enbridge hopes to have operational by 2017.
