B.C. issues Trans Mountain pipeline permit update as premier heads to Ottawa
VICTORIA — British Columbia’s government has issued a progress report on permits for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, just as Premier John Horgan readies to travel to Ottawa for a meeting on the controversial project.
The Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Ministry says the $7.4-billion project requires 1,187 provincial permits, many of which involve Indigenous consultations.
The ministry says in a statement that 587 permit applications have been submitted to various permitting agencies and of those, 201 have been approved and issued while another 386 are under review.
The report comes as Horgan denies that B.C. is delaying the permitting process, but his statements haven’t satisfied Alberta, the federal government or Kinder Morgan, the pipeline’s owner.