In B.C., More Support Pipeline Than Oppose It

Poll of the Day: Enbridge poll finds support for Enbridge project, says Enbridge.

A new poll commissioned by energy giant Enbridge finds that there is more support among B.C. residents for construction of Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline than there is opposition to it, the first time a poll has concluded as much. The online Ipsos Reid poll, which, as we mentioned above, was paid for by Enbridge, found that 48 per cent of residents that knew about the project supported it, while 32 per cent opposed. That left 20 per cent of respondents who didn't know enough about the pipeline to say whether or not they would support it. The Northern Gateway Pipeline would carry oil from Alberta's oil sands across the Rocky Mountains and through northern B.C. to a port in Kitimat, B.C., where it would be shipped off to markets in Asia.

Previous polls conducted on behalf of environmental groups found that 51 per cent of B.C. residents opposed the pipeline, and that 80 per cent of residents were opposed to any oil tanker traffic along B.C.'s Pacific Coast, a concern that wasn't addressed by the Enbridge poll. Likewise, 130 First Nations bands from across Western Canada are opposed to the project, with aboriginal leaders saying they will go so far as to stand in the way of bulldozers to prevent the pipeline from being built on their land. As it stands, we only have public opinion surveys undertaken for diametrically opposed stakeholders in the pipeline project – the oil industry and environmental activists – and both of those polls had significant numbers of respondents saying they didn't know one way or the other if they supported the project, so take both of these with a bit of sodium chloride. Public hearings on the pipeline begin next week and are to last well into 2013.