Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project

Raincoast’s efforts to stop Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project included new science, expert evidence, art, film, public education, and the courts.

The Northern Gateway Project was proposed by Enbridge in 2008 to deliver tar sands diluted bitumen by pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat, BC, and then via oil tankers to international markets. With extensive efforts by Indigenous Nations, NGOs, and community groups, the project was cancelled by the federal government in 2016.

Our popular reports on the Northern Gateway proposal

• What’s at Stake: The cost of oil on BC’s Priceless Coast
• Embroiled: Salmon, Tankers & the Enbridge Northern Gateway Proposal

Art for an Oil-free Coast

• Canada’s Raincoast at Risk: Art for an oil-free coast (book)
• Reflections: Art for an oil-free coast (film)
• e-book for ipad (free download)
• Meet the Artists
• The Art Expedition

Groundswell

• Groundswell: Movie for an oil-free coast

Our evidence to the Joint Review Panel (CEAA-NEB) Hearings

• Raincoast was an intervenor in the CEAA- NEB Joint Review Panel Hearings. This link provides a chronology of our involvement in the CEAA-NEB Joint Review Panel Hearings.
• Raincoast’s Submissions of Evidence to Joint Review Panel (PDF)
• Download the web quality (8 MB PDF) or the  high quality (30 MB PDF) submission of evidence.  Our review identifies and critiques problems with the models, assumptions and analysis presented in Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment.
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Part 1. Preface, Terrestrial Impacts, Cumulative Impacts, Natural Hazards and Climate Change (PDF)
  • Part 2. Marine Impacts – Marine Mammals (PDF)
  • Part 3. Marine Impacts – Marine Birds (PDF)
  • Part 4. Marine Impacts – Salmonids (PDF)
  • Part 5. Marine Impacts – Herring (PDF)
  • Part 6. Marine Impacts – Eulechon (PDF)
  • Part 7. Marine Impacts – Tankers (PDF)
  • Evaluating external risks to Protected Areas (supporting evidence published in Nat. Areas J. 2012)
  • Underwater Noise Impacts (PDF) submitted by NRDC

Articles & Op- Eds from Raincoast staff on Northern Gateway

• Articles and Op-Eds

Extraction, shipping and use of tar sands oil threatens local, regional and global ecosystems

Raincoast said “No” to Northern Gateway but “Yes” to the following:

• uniting Canadians around a national energy strategy that promotes domestic energy security, sustainability, human and environmental health, and is in the long term interest of Canadian citizens.
• protection of water, air, and soil resources that provide food and energy for life,
• fostering healthy ecosystems that sustain wildlife, local communities and local economies,
• protecting fish and wildlife resources that are critically important to Canadians for intrinsic, ecological, cultural and economic reasons,
• meeting our domestic energy needs through low carbon alternatives,
• reducing Canada’s contribution to global carbon emissions and addressing climate change,
• rejecting corporate profit that destroys or threatens public resources