Contact: Eric Swanson – 250-381-3226

VICTORIA – Responding to Enbridge’s filing of an application late today for their Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline and tanker project to BC’s coast, Dogwood Initiative’s Eric Swanson says:

“Unless Enbridge changes its mind like it did in 2006, we will now begin years of wasted time, energy, and money on a process that is not properly constituted, whose outcome is virtually guaranteed to be challenged in the courts, all for a project that the overwhelming majority of First Nations and coastal residents have said they will not let happen”
 
“Dogwood Initiative has been studying this proposal ever since it was announced in 2005. We cannot imagine a scenario where Enbridge, or any proponent, is able to overcome the political forces organized against a new West Coast pipeline. And we consider ourselves a fairly imaginative group of people.”
 
“The opposition to Enbridge’s project is growing by the day. If Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel persists in ignoring the desires of British Columbians it will cost his company and this project’s investors a lot of wasted time, energy, brand capital and ultimately money.”
 
For its part, Dogwood Initiative will continue to work with its 25,000 supporters, and the growing coalition of First Nations, businesses, organizations, and prominent Canadians arrayed against the Northern Gateway project. British Columbians have been standing up and shutting down oil tanker proposals for close to fourty years. The organization is committed to helping the people of this province channel that same sentiment into this review.
 
Dogwood Initiative is a BC-based non-governmental organization that is campaigning for a permanent, federal oil tanker ban on the BC coast, with the aim of protecting coastal communities and ecosystems from what we feel would be inevitable oil spills. The campaign currently has over 25,000 supporters.

Contact: Eric Swanson – 250-381-3226