Douglas Channel Watch (DCW) has launched their campaign to get voters out for Kitimat's April 12 plebiscite on the Northern Gateway Pipelines proposal.
"We fought hard for a simple, clear question but didn't realize how important the plebiscite was until we started getting interview requests from the BBC, and heard of other international news organizations that were also coming to cover it," said DCW member Murray Minchin in a news release.
DCW conducted door-to-door surveys, the organization says, to find out what people thought ahead of the community vote.
There were five key reasons that they found for people to vote no in the plebiscite, whether they were a 'fence sitter' on the issue or supporters of the Northern Gateway project.
Those reasons were, it "will allow temporary foreign workers to build the pipelines," it describes "Northern Gateway as a raw diluted bitumen export pipeline," it "does not mandate upgrading or any other job creating, value added projects," it will "allow 1,100ft long oil supertankers on BC's pristine north coast," and that "the JRP considered the Exxon Valdez and Kalamazoo spills as localized events with temporary effects, which would be 'justified in the circumstances' if they happened in BC's waters."
Minchin said that this plebiscite is a "golden opportunity," for Kitimatians to send a strong message to Ottawa that the Northern Gateway should not be a priority.
DCW has launched their campaign as a grassroots action against Enbridge's own advertising efforts. Enbridge has been running a number of ads in community newspapers and radio as Kitimat leads into its early April plebiscite.
The question being asked on April 12 is: Do you support the final report recommendations of the Joint Review Panel (JRP) of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and National Energy Board, that the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project be approved, subject to 209 conditions set out in Volume 2 of the JRP’s final report?
Visit www.kitimat.ca for detailed information on advanced voting opportunities and more details including voter eligibility.