Do you support Northern Gateway recommendations, Kitimat to ask residents

KITIMAT, B.C. – The district of Kitimat has released the wording of a question that will be asked of residents in an upcoming referendum on the Northern Gateway pipeline.

The municipal ballot will ask eligible residents: “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?”

Residents will have to tick a box “yes” or “no.”

The vote will be held on Saturday, April 12.

The $6-billion Northern Gateway project would see a marine terminal built in Kitimat, on the northern B.C. coast, to load bitumen from the Alberta oil sands onto tankers for transport to Asia.

A joint federal review panel has recommended approval of the project — with 209 conditions — and a decision is expected from the federal government in June.