Newly re-elected Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said one of his first priorities is to see that the city does all it can to ensure no anti-Kinder Morgan protesters are arrested on Burnaby Mountain.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge on Friday granted Kinder Morgan, which is conducting survey work for its proposed Trans Mountain pipeline extension, an injunction giving protesters until 4 p.m. Monday to vacate their protest camp on the mountain.
“I want them to trust that the City of Burnaby is doing what it should do on their behalf,” Corrigan said in an interview after his victory speech Saturday night. “We will continue to manage this issue and to fight this battle and I don’t want any of them to put themselves in a situation where they jeopardize their freedom or their livelihood.”
Protesters should not feel they have no choice but to get arrested, Corrigan said.
“In this case, they’ve got a government that cares and they should trust us to do what we can do.”
Asked what the city can do, Corrigan said the city will continue to fight Kinder Morgan in the courts. “We are going to utilize the system in order to make sure that this doesn’t proceed.
“This is not the end of this. This is only the beginning of what is a long war to protect our rights ... this battle is between federal forces and local governments beyond Burnaby.”
The city is involved in litigation against Kinder Morgan at the National Energy Board, the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court. Should the project go ahead, it would triple the size of the tank farm on the side of Burnaby Mountain and greatly increase the number of tankers coming into Burrard Inlet to ship bitumen overseas.
Corrigan was re-elected to a fifth consecutive term in office Saturday. His party, the left-leaning Burnaby Citizens Association, completed a third-straight sweep of all positions on council and school board.
“Nobody believed it could happen a third time,” Corrigan said in his victory speech. One of his first priorities will be to complete the city’s environmental sustainability strategy, which will guide all city operations going forward, he said.
One new councillor, outgoing school board trustee James Wang of the BCA, replaced outgoing BCA councillor Richard Chang.
Corrigan easily defeated Burnaby First challenger Daren Hancott, attracting nearly 70 per cent of the vote to Hancott’s 22 per cent.
Hancott said that while he was disappointed Burnaby First didn’t elect any councillors or school trustees and that there is no opposition to the BCA, he is proud the party was able to run a full slate of candidates on one-tenth of the budget of its rivals.
Hancott, an executive with Maple Leaf Foods who was recently involved with the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and the federal Conservatives, said he did not take a position on the proposed pipeline because it is not a municipal issue and not an issue that was front-of-mind for many Burnaby residents going into the election. Hancott said that in the hundreds of conversations he had knocking on doors, the pipeline only came up a handful of times.
The Burnaby First slate ran on a platform of lower taxes and making the city more business-friendly.
Asked if he would run again in the next municipal election, Hancott said “I’m not running away ... I believe every municipality should have at least two parties to give people a choice.”
