TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline president, Francois Poirier, came to Ottawa Monday, expecting to be the star attraction for a crowd of over 200 who paid to listen to his speech at the Chateau Laurier. Instead, his talk was interrupted by Ottawa residents upset with TransCanada’s plans to ship 175 million litres of tar sands bitumen through the region every day. Protestor Jo Wood:
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The group stood beside the head table with banners reading “We can’t drink oil,” and “Stop Energy East.” A few minutes later, they were quietly escorted from the room.
As Ben Powless of Ecology Ottawa explains, a number of outspoken citizens also showed up at the 2-day visit of the Ontario Energy Board last week.
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Powless says the TransCanada Energy East project application has been deemed incomplete, and will take several more months to make it to the National Energy Board. Powless says a visit from the Ontario Energy Board last week revealed the environmental impact studies on the pipeline project are still incomplete.
The Municipality of North Grenville has said they will not vote for or against the pipeline project until the environmental impact information has been carefully reviewed.