Kitimat residents have voted against the Northern Gateway pipeline, with 58.4 per cent of ballots in the city’s plebiscite being cast against the project, as of around 9 p.m. Saturday. In total, 1,793 voted against the proposed project, while 1,278 or 41.6 per cent were in favour.

3,071 ballots were cast, marking a high turnout (62 per cent) in the community of roughly 4,900 eligible voters at the terminus of Enbridge’s proposed oil pipeline. Fifty-six per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in the last municipal election.

“We’re celebrating with the Haisla outside in the park…and they’re surrounding the Douglas Channel Watch with thank you signs. They’re performing a drum song right now,” said Patricia Lange from Douglas Channel Watch.

“It’s a really powerful moment.”

The vote, although non-binding, is an important part of the public relations battle being waged over Enbridge’s project. Enbridge brought in teams of paid corporate canvassers from out of town, placed full-page ads in northern newspapers and launched a “Vote Yes For Kitimat” website.

“This vote is confirmation we are going to stand firm and say no to the influence of big oil,” Lange said.

“And coming from our community, a community that has everything to gain from this project, we still say no. We are sending that message throughout B.C. and to Ottawa.”

Donny van Dyk, Northern Gateway's manager of coastal aboriginal and community relations, said in a statement: "Today’s result shows that while there is support for Northern Gateway in Kitimat, we have more work to do. And over the coming weeks and months we will continue to reach out and listen to our neighbours and friends so that Northern Gateway can build a lasting legacy for the people of our community."

The cities of Smithers, Prince Rupert and Terrace already officially oppose the project, as do the Kitimat-Stikine Regional District and dozens of First Nations. The province of British Columbia also said no to the project in its final argument to the joint review panel. However, that panel overrode the province and recommended the project be approved. Now the federal cabinet has until June 19 to announce whether it will grant the project certificate.

Before the plebiscite began, Douglas Channel Watch had $200 in the bank (Enbridge earnings for 2013 were $446 million). When the group committed to its first full-page newspaper ad, members decided they would pay for the remainder themselves if donations wouldn’t cover it — then the money started rolling in.

“People began handing money to us while we were putting up lawn signs, or downtown, and somebody even left an anonymous $2,000 money order in one of our mailboxes,” said Murray Minchin, a member of the group.

Kitimat is located at the beginning of the Douglas Channel, where 225 tankers would be loaded with oil and set sail for Asia each year if Enbridge’s project goes ahead. The city is arguably the B.C. community that would benefit most from the project — with Enbridge promising up to 165 permanent jobs in the city.  

Indeed, if Enbridge can’t earn support in Kitimat — a blue-collar city planned and built by the Alumnium Company of Canada in the 1950s — then it’s hard to see how the company, or the federal government for that matter, can even pretend to have social licence for this project in British Columbia.

*Update notice: The voter turnout percentage in this story was updated (from 71 per cent to 62 per cent) to reflect a jump in new voter registrations. Before the vote, there were 4,163 people on the voters list. A total of 761 new voter registrations occurred during the plebiscite, altering the turnout calculation.

Image Credit: screen shot from yesforkitimat.ca

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Kitimat residents are fighting back as Enbridge scales up its campaign to sway the town’s plebiscite vote on the company’s Northern Gateway oil pipeline, which would see oil loaded onto 225 tankers a year at a proposed Kitimat terminal.

Having already launched an advertising blitz, Enbridge now has teams of paid canvassers knocking on doors throughout the community of 9,000 people. Door-knockers include Ray Doering, Enbridge’s manager of engineering from Calgary, Colin Kinsley, former mayor of Prince George and chair of the Enbridge-funded Northern Gateway Alliance, and other out-of-town Enbridge employees.

“It’s the weirdest feeling having strangers in your town canvassing for this big company. It feels like it's none of their business,” says Patricia Lange, a volunteer with community group Douglas Channel Watch. “It feels very invasive.”

Mike Langegger, another Kitimat resident, posted a letter online about receiving a phone call from the company: “I was appalled the other day when I received a call at home from Northern Gateway staff asking me if I was aware of the plebiscite and how I intended to vote.”

A team of Enbridge canvassers blitz a Kitimat residential street. Photo: Patricia Lange.

Douglas Channel Watch is rallying to pull together funds to run ads of its own and has teams of local volunteers going door-to-door. As soon as the group got signs up around town, Enbridge followed suit with signs right next to them.

“Our group, we don’t have the money,” Lange told DeSmog Canada. “But we’re finding it’s really great to be talking individually to people.”

Signs made by Kitimat citizens are accompanied by signs placed by Enbridge Northern Gateway on the streets of Kitimat. Photo: Kathy Ouwehand.

In January, the District of Kitimat council decided to survey its residents on their opinions on Enbridge’s oil proposal in a non-binding plebiscite vote to be held April 12 — but the district didn’t put in place any spending restrictions, in part because the Local Government Act doesn’t contain any limits for advertising during elections or plebiscites.

This is in stark contrast to the rules during a provincial election or initiative vote, during which Elections BC restricts how much companies and other third-party advertisers can spend. During a B.C. election, third-party advertising is capped at $3,137.93 per electoral district. The rules apply to all forms of advertising, including media advertising, brochures, signs and websites.

So far, during it’s Kitimat plebiscite campaign, Enbridge has run ads in eight northern B.C. newspapers and at least one local radio station, dropped handouts at hundreds of homes, placed signs around town, called households and launched a “Vote Yes For Kitimat” website.

DeSmog Canada research indicates Enbridge’s ad spend on the Kitimat plebiscite so far easily exceeds $15,000 — nearly five times what the company would be allowed to spend during a provincial election.

Due to the absence of rules, Enbridge is also allowed an unlimited budget to pay teams of out-of-town canvassers. During a provincial initiative petition, like the one that launched the HST referendum, canvassers who collect signatures must be volunteers and must live in B.C.

Despite this, Kitimat’s mayor doesn’t seem to see a problem.

“It’s very much feels like a municipal election and everybody has the right to do what they want to promote their cause,” Mayor Joanne Monaghan told the Vancouver Observer on Monday. “That's democracy.”

Dermod Travis, executive director of Integrity BC, disagrees.

"No holds barred is not democracy. The fact that so many jurisdictions in Canada have rules to make votes fair demonstrates that elections and referendums should never be a free-for-all. Limits exist for a reason: fairness," Travis told DeSmog Canada.

Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba have campaign finance rules that limit spending in local elections, Travis says, noting B.C. has the weakest rules in all of Canada.

With Enbridge spending thousands of dollars and no spending restrictions in sight, Kitimat residents are taking matters into their own hands.

Lange has four generations of her family in Kitimat and thinks the risks of the project aren’t worth the benefit for her community.She admits she was “terrified” of knocking on people’s doors at first, but has now been out canvassing nearly every day for the past week.

“We’re trying to reach everyone in town,” she says. “The people who have tried it are wanting to go again and again.”

Douglas Channel Watch has set up a website so it can accept donations to help pay for sign-making materials, handouts and ads.

“I want my grandchildren to live here,” Lange says. “There are only 50 jobs for local people at the end of the day. The amount of money that brings into our economy we could get in other ways.”

Though the plebiscite is not binding, it could boost Enbridge’s PR efforts if it goes their way and it would send a political message if residents vote down the project.

“It’s an opportunity to send a message to Ottawa and to say that this small town, the terminus and the one that might benefit the most from this project in B.C., we say no,” Lange says. “ That’s the reason I’m out there.”

Enbridge did not respond to a request for comment.

Main photo: Kathy Ouwehand

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Enbridge Northern Gateway is covering northern B.C. with ads in the run up to the Kitimat plebiscite, urging citizens to vote in favour of the company’s proposal to ship oil across B.C. and on to Asia on oil tankers.  

During a provincial election or initiative vote, Elections BC restricts how much companies and other third-party advertisers can spend — but no such rules apply to the Kitimat plebiscite, being held on April 12.

Full-page colour ads have appeared in community newspapers in Kitimat, Prince Rupert, Terrace, Smithers, Burns Lake and Fort St. James — a town nearly 600 kilometres away from Kitimat. The estimated cost of those ads is about $8,250.

Enbridge has also launched a website, “Vote Yes for Kitimat,” urging citizens to vote in favour of their project. A conservative price tag on the website would be about $2,000, bringing Enbridge’s ad spend so far to more than $10,000 — with four weeks left until the vote.

During a B.C. election, third-party advertising is capped at $3,137.93 per electoral district. During a province-wide initiative vote, third-party advertising is limited to $5,000 per advertiser. The rules apply to all forms of advertising, including media advertising, brochures, signs and websites.

Enbridge’s ad spend on the Kitimat plebiscite so far is more than three times what the company would be allowed to spend in an electoral district during a provincial election. As of 2011, there were about 4,300 eligible voters in the District of Kitimat.

Limits on advertising during voting periods are important to level the playing field, says Dermod Travis of Integrity BC, a non-profit group that advocates for electoral finance reform.

“Corporations can’t vote — they shouldn’t be given the opportunity to influence referendums and elections,” Travis told DeSmog Canada.

On a provincial level, B.C. is the wild west of electoral finance, Travis says, but it’s even worse on the municipal level, governed by the Local Government Act.

“Northern Gateway is free, frankly, to spend as much as they want before, during and after the plebiscite,” Travis says. “They have very deep pockets and are in a far better position to finance a campaign than any grassroots group in Kitimat.”

Despite the fact the Local Government Act doesn’t contain any limits for advertising during elections or plebiscites, Dermod says the District of Kitimat could have put in place rules on a “boy scout’s pledge.”

Warren Waycheshen, deputy chief administrative officer for the District of Kitimat, told DeSmog Canada that staff did consider the advertising issue. However, they didn’t see any way to enforce a spending limit.

“We didn’t really have any mechanism to limit spending,” he said. “There’s no teeth in the Local Government Act.”

The district has banned signs within 100 metres of voting locations on voting days and has taken measures to prevent temporary workers from voting by requiring a valid piece of identification with a Kitimat address, not just a utility statement. There will also be scrutineers present to observe the counting of ballots.

Douglas Channel Watch, a grassroots Kitimat group that has raised concerns about Enbridge’s proposal, took its concerns about Enbridge’s advertising to the District of Kitimat council Monday night. They’ve also announced a door-to-door campaign to get out the vote.

“Rather than throwing millions of dollars into an ad campaign telling people what to think like Enbridge does, we started knocking on doors and asked the people of Kitimat what was most important to them," said Murray Minchin, a member of Douglas Channel Watch.

The Enbridge newspaper ads feature a woman sitting with a coffee cup at her kitchen table, with the caption: "I want my grandchildren to work here."

If the pipeline and oil tanker terminal were built, it would provide about 165 permanent jobs in Kitimat. The new Rio Tinto Alcan smelter is expected to provide 1,000 permanent jobs. Meanwhile, Kitimat LNG, LNG Canada and Douglas Channel Energy Project all have proposed new projects in Kitimat.

The influx of well-paid workers has jacked up rents in Kitimat, and many locals can’t find accommodations, creating a situation Kitimat’s mayor Joanne Monaghan called “desperate” in a recent article in the Globe and Mail about Rio Tinto Alcan bringing in a cruise ship to house temporary workers.

Earlier this year, the District of Kitimat council decided to survey the residents of Kitimat on their opinions on Enbridge’s oil proposal in a non-binding plebiscite vote.

The wording of the ballot question 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?

Advance voting dates are April 2 and April 9, with general voting on April 12.

Enbridge was asked for details of its plebiscite advertising campaign, but did not respond in time for publication.

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