A $200,000 payment from Trans Mountain to the City of Kamloops because of interruptions at Kenna Cartwright Park has one city councillor wondering if there is something else at play.
While appearing on the NL Morning News, Denis Walsh said the payment came as a surprise to him and thinks the money could be for something else happening in the future.
“I thought it was compensation just for the inconvenience created to the park users, but I think it’s a little deeper than that,” he said. “It looks like it’s for accommodating more of the right of way and possibly some more land. So, I’m totally in the dark on that on what the $200,000 is actually compensating us for.”
Walsh thinks there is something cooking behind the scene.
“I thought it was a show of good faith because of the inconvenience but apparently, looking into it a little bit deeper, that there was negotiations going on for quite sometime between the city and Trans Mountain and apparently they’ve reached what I’d call a settlement,” he added.
“I mean, I need to know because in the meeting yesterday we were told, at least I was under the impression it was for the inconvenience of the park users.”
When asked about Walsh’s thoughts that the money wasn’t given in good faith as it appears on the surface and the company may want more land in the future, Mayor Ken Christian told Radio NL, “No I don’t, that’s news to me. Perhaps councillor Walsh is aware some fact that I’m not.”
Christian admits something like the pipeline expansion can run into unforeseen challenges.
“When you’re doing a major construction project like this, you’re going to have situations where you need to expand your footprint,” he added. “We’re seeing that at the airport right now. If you’ve been out there recently, there’s the line in the right of way but there’s also a lot of additional space that’s being used for the lay down and the welding and the test of the pipe.”
“That kind of thing happens in construction and to their credit they have replaced a dog park with a brand new dog park and when they’re finished going through the old one, they’ll rehabilitate that so we’ll end up with two dog parks out of the deal.”
Walsh, who has openly opposed the pipeline expansion, is happy with the company so far.
“Other than that, Trans Mountain is doing a great job in our community,” he said. “It’s been a really good economic driver. They’re doing their best, I would say almost going beyond their best in the sense of what they’re doing to keep impacts down, while they’re building the pipeline.”
“From that point of view they’re definitely a good partner, especially at this time here when we need some economic stimulus.”
– With files from Jeff Andreas
