[All] Feedback from the office of MP Catherine Fife re: Line 9

Thu Jan 16 22:44:38 EST 2014

Hello everyone

Please use the template in the attachment as a petition to review of Line 9. 

Louisette Lanteigne

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "CFife-CO at ndp.on.ca" <CFife-CO at ndp.on.ca>
To: butterflybluelu at rogers.com 
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2014 4:19:29 PM
Subject: RE: Please secure engineering review of Enbridge Line 7 and Line 9

Hi Louisette,

Thank you for your concern. I would like you to know that Catherine is very committed to advocating for an assessment of Line 9, and certainly shares your concern regarding Line 7. (As the details of Line 7 were only recently revealed our office is still trying to figure out how we can best respond). I would also like to assure you that this office takes both Treaty Rights and Charter Rights very seriously. We have drafted a petition calling on the legislature to conduct an environmental assessment (see attached) Catherine has been presenting these petitions at Queen’s Park and will continue to do so as completed sheets continue to arrive at the office.

If you have the time and energy I do ask that you help in collecting signatures for this very important issue.

Sincerely,

Holli-Lynne Elash
HBA,HBSW, MSW.
Constituency Assistant
Office of Catherine Fife, MPP Kitchener-Waterloo

22 King Street South, Unit 401
Waterloo, ON, N2J 1N8
Tel: 519-725-3477 | Fax: 519-725-3667
Cfife-CO at ndp.on.ca
www.catherinefife.com
NOTE:  If you would like to receive our regular electronic newsletter on community events and activities, please send your email address, home address and phone number to cfife-co at ndp.on.ca

From:Louisette Lanteigne [mailto:butterflybluelu at rogers.com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2014 2:58 PM
To: regionalcouncillors at regionofwaterloo.ca; BRENDA HALLORAN; Karen.Scian at waterloo.ca; diane.freeman at waterloo.ca; jeff.henry at waterloo.ca; melissa.durrell at waterloo.ca; Mark.Whaley at waterloo.ca; scott.witmer at waterloo.ca; angela.vieth at waterloo.ca; dschultz at grandriver.ca; Fife - CO, Catherine; peter.braid at parl.gc.ca; jmilloy.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org; stephen.woodworth at parl.gc.ca; gary.goodyear at parl.gc.ca; BobVrbanac; gmercer at therecord.com; Paul.Emerson at brant.ca; ron.eddy at brant.ca; cfriel at brantford.ca; council at cambridge.ca; carl.zehr at kitchener.ca; stephane.dion at parl.gc.ca; kwynne.mpp at liberal.ola.org; Horwath - CO, Andrea; feedback at sixnations.ca; info at cmf-fmc.ca
Subject: Please secure engineering review of Enbridge Line 7 and Line 9

Dear Ministers, Municipal Officials, Conservation Staff 

In November the National Energy Board approved of a 22% flow increase for Enbridge LIne 7, from Sarnia to Westover.  The pipeline is over 6 decades old and no municipalities were informed of this process of approval. Here is CBC coverage regarding this.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/the-local-enbridge-pipeline-expansion-you-don-t-know-about-1.2498056

Technically this process was done without Aboriginal Consent which is a violation of both Treaty Rights and Charter Rights. Line 9 has never had crown consultation and Enbridge admits in writing they've never once reviewed a single treaty regarding Line 9 even though it crosses 18 Aboriginal Territories. The pipeline as it is today is technically illegal. 

After the Line 9 hearings I tried to file a formal complaint with Professional Engineers Ontario asking them to secure a review of Line 9 based on the structural engineering concerns raised at the hearing. They stated that there is an Industrial Exemption blocking them from investigating the matter. Under the powers of the Professional Engineers Act, they can only assess the actions of individual employees rather than investigate structural issue itself. I've spoken directly to members of the Executive Committee and here are actual quotes that they provided to me on their views of this issue:

For many years PEO has been trying to modify our Act to remove a section variously known as the Industrial Exception or the Industrial Exemption (IE). This allows manufacturing and other companies an exemption from complying with our Act as far as engineering done by them in certain areas. Unfortunately initial Regulation was never made spelling out the terms of the IE and corporations have self determined their ideas of IE and the scopes that they say are outside our purview. In the last three years we have worked with Government to close this loophole and we have an Act change approved by the Legislature. Unfortunately with two days to go before proclamation a manufacturers’ association lobbied every MP several times such that a cabinet meeting was called at short notice and the proclamation was put on hold. ALL POLITICAL PARTIES were involved in this and none were prepared to stand up against the manufacturers.

PEO has control over Engineers. NOT over engineering. We licence engineers and can only investigate the performance of (an) engineer(s). We cannot examine the results of their work, just the means by which the work was done.

At this time I am working to help change policy to give the Province the ability to review engineering issues based on the actual merits of the physical engineering itself or the plans related to rather than the conduct of employees. I want to share this information with Municipal Officials to ask for your assistance in securing the establishment of this review process. 

In the meantime, I'd also like the city and/or region to see if they could perhaps secure an engineering audit of the plans regarding both Line 7 volume increases and Line 9  to make sure the activities do not pose a risk. As a delegate at both the Enbridge Line 9 phase 1 and Line 9 phase B hearings, (Enbridge coined those terms, there is no phase 2 or phase A in existence) it was clear that Enbridge limited the scope of the pipeline review to the sections located at the pump stations while excluding data to the areas of the pipeline located off site.
 It is reasonable to say we need to secure a review of the structural integrity of the pipeline between the two pumping stations before they start shipping oil or dilbit through. We need to secure hydro-static testing of the total line from Sarnia to Westover takes place at 1.5 times the pounds per square inch of the intended increase to make sure the line will maintain structural integrity. This is the proper engineering protocol to follow to mitigate risk for fuel systems. We require that test to secure proof of concept to mitigate risks for all the communities along the way.

Enbridge Line 9 in it's CURRENT STATE may not be compliant to today's standards because the PE tape used to protect the line from corrosion, crack clusters or failure is not up to code. It comes off. It is reasonable to state the same issues may exist in the 60 year old Line 7 as well. Depth of coverage, thickness of the walls of the pipe and the presence of crack clusters must be examined if we are to reasonably mitigate risks.

A stitch in time saves nine. We still have time to avert disaster if we work to secure a proper Engineering audit of the total lines from Sarnia to Westover. Please help to facilitate this.

Yours in good faith,

Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.
Waterloo ON.
N2V 2L2
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