Trans Mountain Expansion Project

Trans Mountain is conducting work related to the pipeline expansion project near Government Street, between Horne Street and the Burnaby Mountain Urban Trail.

Pre-construction work has already started and construction is slated to continue through December 2022. During construction, Government Street will be closed to traffic and a detour will be in place for approximately six months. Temporary trail detours will also be in place along the Burnaby Mountain Urban Trail in some areas.

About this project

In spite of significant and sustained opposition from hundreds of individuals, as well as governments, not-for-profit organizations and First Nations, on June 18, 2019, the Government of Canada approved the Trans Mountain Expansion Project—a 1,150-kilometre pipeline between Edmonton, Alberta, and Burnaby, B.C. Construction is now under way.

This project is designed to increase the amount of dirty oil (diluted bitumen) travelling to and through Burnaby, from approximately 300,000 barrels a day of to 890,000 barrels per day.

The project proposes:

approximately 980 kilometres of new pipeline
193 kilometres of reactivated pipeline
12 new pump stations
19 new, primarily significantly larger, tanks at the existing storage terminals in Burnaby (14) on environmentally sensitive Burnaby Mountain, Sumas (1) and Edmonton (4)
Three new berths, to be built at Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby. They would enable the number of tankers loaded at the Westridge Marine Terminal to increase to approximately 34 per month, a sevenfold increase to the number of tankers travelling into Burrard Inlet, via the sensitive habitat of the Salish Sea. This would significantly damage marine life, including endangered Orca whales.

The City of Burnaby has officially opposed this project since it was first proposed, because it offers no benefits to the City and presents many significant safety risks and will cause irreparable damage to Burnaby’s environment.

Though the National Energy Board (now the Canadian Energy Regulator) approved this project in spite of significant opposition, the City of Burnaby continues to oppose the project and to ensure that the many risks of the project continue to be publicly exposed and brought to the attention of Trans Mountain, Kinder Morgan, the Canadian Energy Regulator and the federal government.

The project poses an unacceptably high risk to local residents and all Burnaby residents.

Background information

Learn more about the project, its risks and Burnaby’s opposition.

Video (released in 2018) features: Former Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, Economist Robyn Allan and the City of Burnaby Director of Corporate Services, Dipak Dattani; footage of July 2007 Kinder Morgan oil spill in Burnaby; aerial footage of proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline route through Burnaby.

In 2014, the City of Burnaby, City of Vancouver and Tsleil-Waututh Nation retained Genwest Systems Inc. to model oil spill scenarios in Burrard Inlet. Each dot in the animations below represents 2,000 litres of oil.

Model from the First Narrows Bridge