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by Mike Caswell

The City of Burnaby has lost its application in the Supreme Court of British Columbia for an injunction that would stop Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP from carrying out exploratory work on Burnaby Mountain. In a one-line decision released Wednesday, Sept. 17, Justice Brenda Brown has refused to grant an injunction that would have stopped the work. She did not provide any reasons, but will issue a written decision at a later date.

The ruling is a setback for the City of Burnaby, which complained that Kinder Morgan contractors had cut down 13 trees on Burnaby Mountain without the city's authorization. The cutting was part of the company's work to evaluate a route through Burnaby for the a small portion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The city said that Kinder Morgan had ignored municipal bylaws that prevented the cutting of trees in a park and had ignored an order to cease work.

For its part, Kinder Morgan contended that the city was using its own bylaws for purely political purposes. In early 2014 the city made many public statements expressing its opposition to the Trans Mountain expansion. After it became known that Kinder Morgan planned to carry out exploratory work, Burnaby Mayor Doug Corrigan said the company's request to access Burnaby would be denied. When Kinder Morgan started work anyway (after a favourable ruling from the National Energy Board) the city intimidated a contractor into abandoning the project and had municipal employees physically stand in the company's way, Kinder Morgan claimed.

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