Support for the controversial Northern Gateway project has fallen in British Columbia.
Almost half of British Columbians (49%) now oppose the project, according to an Insights West poll released July 2.
This is up two percentage points from November 2013.
Only 38% of British Columbians now support the project; this is down four percentage points from November 2013.
“Even after the federal government granted conditional approval to the Northern Gateway Pipelines Project, subject to 209 conditions being met by Enbridge, the needle did not move in favour of the project,” says Mario Canseco, vice-president, public affairs, at Insights West.
“British Columbians remain concerned about oil spills, increased tanker traffic and the environmental impact of construction.”
Although opposition has grown, it actually remains lower than in January 2013. Canseco told Business in Vancouver this was due to Enbridge’s first campaign in the first half of 2013, which was not met favourably by British Columbians.
“We’ve had the new campaign from Enbridge, we’ve had more discussions, now we have the federal government saying they would like to say this happen, but it really hasn’t moved the needle as much as many expected and it seems to be very steady,” he said.
“When they really tried to do things differently they were able to have that level of opposition move a little lower than it was, but it’s certainly not where they want it to be,” he said.
Although support for the project in Alberta remains considerably higher than in B.C., it has fallen over the past 18 months (from 75% in favour of the project in January 2013 to 65% in June 2014).
