[All] Fw: EBR response re:: Enbridge Water Takings & Treaty Rights.

Thu Nov 5 01:36:37 EST 2015

My EBR response re: Enbridge Water Taking permits. 

    ----- Forwarded Message -----
  From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
 To: Aamjiwnaang First Nation (Enviro Officer) <sjohnston at aamjiwanaang.ca>; "environment at afn.ca" <environment at afn.ca>; Myeengun Henry <mhenry at conestogac.on.ca>; "commissioner at eco.on.ca" <commissioner at eco.on.ca>; Minister MOECC (MOECC) <minister.moecc at ontario.ca>; "premier at ontario.ca" <premier at ontario.ca>; Write2us (ENERGY) <write2us at ontario.ca> 
 Sent: Thursday, November 5, 2015 1:35 AM
 Subject: EBR response re:: Enbridge Water Takings & Treaty Rights.

Regarding the following EBR applications:

| BR Registry Number | Ministry Reference Number | Title or Proponent | Type | Published Date |
|  | 012-5569 | 5574-A3QJKJ | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 29, 2015 |
|  | 012-5564 | 1704-A3QH68 | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 28, 2015 |
|  | 012-5496 | 0517-A3HHZW | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 21, 2015 |
|  | 012-5494 | 0228-A3HJHN | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 21, 2015 |
|  | 012-4898 | 1646-9Z4RBX | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Decision | October 20, 2015 |
|  | 012-5374 | 6071-A32NUV | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 16, 2015 |
|  | 012-5352 | 2584-A2VVBB | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 16, 2015 |
|  | 012-5351 | 1756-A2VUQZ | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 16, 2015 |
|  | 012-5350 | 1414-A2VV4S | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 16, 2015 |
|  | 012-5436 | 6404-A3AHU6 |

| Add | EBR Registry Number | Ministry Reference Number | Title or Proponent | Type | Published Date |
|  | 012-5435 | 1328-A3AQ9U | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 15, 2015 |
|  | 012-5434 | 2166-A3APG9 | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 15, 2015 |
|  | 012-5421 | 7334-A3AGZ9 | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 15, 2015 |
|  | 012-5419 | 3828-A39QUE | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 14, 2015 |
|  | 012-5396 | 3204-A32LJ3 | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 13, 2015 |
|  | 012-5395 | 3654-A32NA9 | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 13, 2015 |
|  | 012-5394 | 4287-A32HYR | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | October 13, 2015 |
|  | 010-7564 | 2084-7USQ2X | Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. 
(EPA Part II.1-air) - Environmental Compliance Approval (project type: air) | Instrument Decision | October 02, 2015 |
|  | 012-5275 | 3078-A2FLHU | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | September 28, 2015 |
|  | 012-5274 | 4306-A2FLXQ | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | September 28, 2015 |

| Add | EBR Registry Number | Ministry Reference Number | Title or Proponent | Type | Published Date |
|  | 012-5273 | 8168-A2FLRR | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(OWRA s. 34) - Permit to Take Water | Instrument Proposal | September 28, 2015 |
|  | 012-5206 | 8805-9VDLHN | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(EPA Part II.1-sewage) - Environmental Compliance Approval (project type: sewage) | Instrument Proposal | September 21, 2015 |
|  | 012-5205 | 7344-9WWSBS | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(EPA Part II.1-sewage) - Environmental Compliance Approval (project type: sewage) | Instrument Proposal | September 21, 2015 |
|  | 012-5203 | 2209-9XJS9H | Enbridge Pipelines Inc. 
(EPA Part II.1-sewage) - Environmental Compliance Approval (project type: sewage) | Instrument Proposal | September 21, 2015 |

Please forward this response to the individual(s) handling these cases. These same concerns apply to each of these individual applications so I would like that on the record.  
This work is being proposed without proper Environmental Assessments in place to determine potential risks for endangered species, wetlands, fisheries, wells, municipal water supplies and Treaty lands. Collectively in the month of October alone Enbridge has used the Environmental Registry to request water takings over 185,500,000 litres of water each day, 7 days a week for up to 365 days to facilitate work on Line 9. This is outrageous and excessive. Water belongs to the commons. What compensation do we get for this?  We don't know how their activities will impact municipal water volumes or water quality. The permits are to take either groundwater or surface water.  There is really no specificity for the applications at all. They might be draining vernal ponds along the route or disturbing habitats of endangered species like wavy rayed mussels. There is no data on the draw down impacts of the water taking will affect other wells. 
To date the hydrostatic testing conducted on Line 9 was so low in pressure it negates reasonable risk assessment. I include a PDF in the attachments to illustrate the concern. 
I would like to secure an independent Provincial review of the safety of this pipeline in it's current state if possible. I'd like to see this done before any permit is issued

Fire Fighters are the first response to oil spills. Their authority trumps that of the MNR because they are working to protect human lives. The law as written gives them discretionary powers as to when or if the MNR Spills Action Centre is contacted. The problem is, firefighters are trained by Enbridge. Their primary duty is to keeping the public away from sites. They have no strict mandate (or materials) to actually stop the flow of solvents and sometimes they lack basic equipment like proper sized booms. Since charges are bound to the volume of solvents spilled, the evidence often floats away. The clean up is Enbridge's responsibility. There is a significant delay to engage Enbridge's spills response crews based on the distance of the crew to the spill location and that delay poses a serious risk not only to local water supplies but for folks downstream.  Are spills response teams on the site during the work? What safety protocols are in place while the work is going on. Are area residents reasonably notified of these activities? Has Enbridge communicated their intent with First Nation's communities to take along the route beyond the scope of the EBR registry?
On Line 9 the valves are generally spaced 12 km apart along Line 9. If there is a valve on one side, the line can still reverse flow up to 12 km of fluids even with all valves shut. What contingency plans are in place should an accident occur? What kind of containment is proposed at what capacity?
What is the protocol if they dig up an area that contains a long standing leak and do they have a mandate report it to the Spills Action Centre, NEB and Municipal Officials? 
I was a delegate at both Line 9 hearings and I chronicled issues I witnessed here at: https://piperisks.wordpress.com/
To be quite honest, we don't even know if Enbridge actually has proper CPCN permit to even work on this pipeline. Only the NEB can issue a CPCN permit and the NEB Act clearly states if there is a transfer of assets or ownership, they must ask the NEB permission first. This relates to the NEB Act section 74, 21 and 51.
I asked the NEB to provide me with the CPCN permit that applies currently to Line 9 and the only one that applies is made out to Interprovincial Pipeline. They owned the pipe when it was built but there is no documentation to show the NEB ever permitted the transfer of assets to Enbridge.  I asked the Chair of the National Energy Board, Mr. Peter Watson about this. Mr. Watson's response provided me with a copy of the only applicable permit.  I include that in the attachments for your reference. 
This summer, Enbridge Pipeline Inc. transferred Line 9 to Enbridge Income Fund but again, there was no permission asked from the NEB to allow for the transfer of assets. The transfer of Line 9 was confirmed to me by Graham White of Enbridge PIpeline Inc.  via personal correspondence. I attach that email for your reference. In response.  I called the RCMP, the OPP, the College of Skills and Trade, the Labour Ministries  at the Provincial and Federal Level as well as the Transportation Safety Board to find out if they had a legal permit or not during the initial Line 9 hydrostatic testing earlier this year. They all said it was beyond their jurisdiction to investigate this issue. I approached economist Robyn Allen in BC ,who found similar issues with Kinder Morgan Pipeline and I also approached an economy professor and they both said what was happening was clearly unethical and potentially illegal. One went so far as to contact solicitors on my behalf. I am looking at my legal options but honestly it should not come to the day when it's up to a housewife to pay out of pocket to secure an injunction because a company doesn't have a permit or proper transfer of assets to be augmenting an oil pipeline. I bet if I went to the pipe and took a shovel to the area and started to dig the police would be there quick and I would be sued, branded a terrorist and God knows what else. Meanwhile I observed how  Enbridge can hire people to do integrity testing without  documentation for the transfer of assets while enforcement agencies say it's beyond their jurisdiction. This is not reasonable at all. Where is the documentation for the transfer of assets? If they haven't got that nobody should touch that line.
I would like to request that the Environmental Commissioner's Office check for that before issuance of a water permit is permitted. Don't begin until you check that much. It may spare you lots of work.  
There has been no Aboriginal Consent nor Crown consultation process with this project which violates Treaty Rights and Charter Rights as well as the Constitutional Rights of the 18 tribes along the route of Enbridge Line 9.. I am Mi'kmaw metis and I know my tribe doesn't want this line to increase the flow of oil towards the  East Coast through our territory. My tribe is a bona fide Nation and was recognized as such by the Vatican Concordat of 1610. I include that treaty in the attachments for your reference. 
I am a blood descendant of Sakmow Grand Chief Henri Membertou of the Mi'kmaw Nation on both sides of my family and I can prove that by documents and DNA.  Teluisi Louisette Lanteigne. Teliawi Gespe'g. My family originates from the Gespeg district of the Mi'kmaw territories. I am the living descendant of the folks who had the first treaty in North America. We required a treaty to do trade with Europe because you had to be Catholic to do business. We were the first baptized and the first to adopt the Catholic faith as our national religion. Our flag is a templar cross.. The design goes side to side today but in the 1600's it was a banner that goes up and down. All women in my family have the name Marie. All the men Joseph. We have a long history of not only being Catholic but we have the duty to protect the French Acadians too and we did during deportations of the Acadians and in battles against the British troops. We were the first Metis community in Canada. I am Acadian Metis.   My family was subject to deportations, government sanctioned scalping under the instruction of Cornwallis and small pox that destroyed 90% of our Mi'kmaw populations by intent as an act of war. My people died to keep our treaties alive. We were subject to laws that kept our communities disadvantaged to this day.  Priests raped children to break faith in the age of my parents.Children were born of the rapes in my own family. Industries set up toxic discharges upwind from our Metis, Acadian and black communities in Nova Scotia to the point they had to create a bill to stop the practice called  "An Act to Address Environmental Racism.". That bill is in process right now.
We won't be silent any more about our rights or your duty to consult our tribes by way of the format afforded to us by law which is Crown Consent.  Canada is one of many nations here. Never underestimate the power of our voice. My nation has a duty to the Vatican and to our own nation is to protect Christians. I am working to protecting their water from oil spills from these end of life pipelines. 
We always held water as sacred. All Indigenous communities do. That's what flowed out of the body of Christ. Not blood, but water. The cup of the wine in a chalice is mixed with water. The priests washes his hands before he touches the chalice and he does so with water. We are baptized in water. Our dad's swam into our moms and we grew as aquatic beings in a womb. According to the USGS the average adult is 60% water.  For our ancestors, Jesus was like the Mi'kmaw. He held our most sacred thing as his most sacred too. He was made of it as we are.  
Even God himself demanded protection of moraines. In Deuteronomy Section 11 vs 10-17 it states;
10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:11 But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:12 A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;17 And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.I live on land like that in Waterloo. It is the reason Mennonites settled here. It matches the description of the promised land. I understand folks may or may not be of any particular faith in reading this but the snapshot provided by these ancient texts reveals what people knew thousands of years before the science caught up to prove them right. There are warnings that to this day, we must still heed. I will also share for you the very first passage of the Canadian Constitution: 
He described them to Moses perfectly. He's God. That's his style. The land which he speaks are the outwash moraines. Ground penetrating radar picks up the recharge of the hill slopes where glaciers melted. It forms hummoky hills, with a water feature on one end where the glacier pooled in place and a hill slope with sediment fanned out layers like the sand on a shore. That's how water melted. It distributes sediment in waves and there are veins of recharge in between. These are beautiful fertile lands for food. He spoke to Moses and demanded the protection of these lands
CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
 Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law: 

It is my sacred duty to do what I do by way of the Vatican concordat and in duty to my Nation that was recognized internationally for over 250 years before Canada became a country. 
The EBR listings are great if your Canadian but it fails to meet the reasonable communication protocols required to facilitate meaningful dialogue with First Nations who can only abide to the law by way of the protocols afforded to us. We don't make the rules here but must meet the existing requirements of the Federal Charter of Rights and Constitutional Act and Treaty Laws as written. If we use discretionary powers to weaken that then we end up with the potential to weaken our protective laws and land right laws and if we don't honor our end of the rules we may find our rights are stripped from us. 
We don't break Treaties. It's not our way but this approval process is clearly a violation of the accepted protocol.
Being Metis. I am the child of two worlds so I can give comment as a Canadian but as a Mi'kmaw I know this is a wrong process. Enbridge has no consent to be doing what they are doing. This is not a quasi jurisdictional process happening here. I do not see any provision in the EBR to state that your agency has the legal right to bypass a Crown Consent process for this water taking. 
Right now I don't even know if Enbridge is has a valid CPCN permit to do the work they are doing. Check that first. 
I would also like to ask the EBR facilitate a Crown Consultation process for these proposed water takings. The act of taking water at these proposed volumes must be brought to the First Nations communties before any consent is given. 
Honour the Treaties
Thank you kindly for your time.
Louisette Lanteigne700 Star Flower Ave.Waterloo Ont.N2V 2L2

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