Enbridge's proposed pipeline stirs strong emotions along the route
What's surprising is who's in favour of the Northern Gateway pipeline and who's opposed
Provident Williams natural gas fractionating site near the proposed start of the Gateway pipeline in Alberta. Much of the vicinity near the proposed start of the pipeline is industrial.Andrew Querner
Enbridge's planned Northern Gateway pipeline route starts in grazing land where Enbridge manager Michele Perret stands, near Bruderheim, Alta.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
Three First Nations have asked Enbridge to move the pipeline route onto their territory, so that they can derive revenue from it. It's why Darwin Alexis, a councillor in one of those nations, can walk onto the proposed route, where a thoroughfare the width of a football field has already been cut through the forest to accommodate three existing pipelines, and say, 'the impacts are here already. So there's no big impact.'Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
Pipeline is synonymous with prosperity for farmers like John Kampjes, who used an oil-patch buyout to upgrade his dairy operation.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
Enbridge engineer Ray Doering explains how the pipeline would cross the Smoky River at kilometre 422 on the route.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
The proposed pipeline route passes just south of this barn owned by John Kampjes and his son Tom.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
Roy Pattison is a trapper, a guide, a pilot, a lumberman, a road builder, a taxidermist and a cowboy. While the Gateway pipeline would cross his guiding area and one of his traplines, he supports the project -- in large measure because he owns trucks and a gravel quarry, and he's already told Enbridge he'd like to work on it. 'I think it's going to impact us, with the trapping and the guiding,' he says. 'But if we're involved with it, it would be justifiable.'Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
Roy Pattison's home is festooned with all manner of trophy heads from hunts around the world. As a guide, he helps outsiders shoot numerous moos each year. Yet, come winter, he sets aside enough hay to feed a herd of 50 elk that he would never dream of shooting.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
Mike Ridsdale, (left) with his brother John, is convinced the Gateway pipeline will leak, a conviction cemented this summer when first the BP Gulf spill renewed fears about the dangers of oil, and then Enbridge itself suffered two major pipeline ruptures on its existing crude network in the U.S.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine/The Globe and Mail
Gateway would result in a tanker a day passing in front of Hartley Bay, pictured here. Some would be supertankers, capable of carrying two million barrels—nearly 320 million litres—of crude.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
Trees above the Kitimat River off of the Upper Kitimat Forest Service Road in B.C. The proposed Gateway pipeline would run through the area.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine
Wet'suwet'en Nation members like David de Wit are expressing their opposition to Enbridge's proposed Gateway pipeline by erecting a cabin squarely in its path.Andrew Querner for ROB Magazine