It’s either good or bad news, depending on one’s point of view..That’s because federally-owned Trans Mountain Corp. on Sunday said both its mainline and pending expansion to Burnaby were safe from wildfires that have ravaged British Columbia..“Trans Mountain is actively monitoring the wildfire situation and we are in constant communication with local and provincial agencies, including indigenous communities,” it said in a statement..It added the company maintains wildfire trailers and equipment caches along the route to be used if needed. In addition, the pipeline itself is protected owing to the fact that it is buried and covered with dirt.. TransMountain (TMX) expansion routeTransMountain (TMX) expansion route .It comes after BC on Friday imposed a province-wide state of emergency. As of Monday, more than 35,000 people were under evacuation orders while another 30,000 were under an alert. .Non-essential travel to the fires zones is banned and the TransCanada Highway was closed in both directions on Monday morning between Hope and Lytton, effectively blocking access to Canada’s busiest port in Vancouver..Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Trudeau approved a BC government request for military assistance. .Speaking at a Liberal cabinet retreat in Prince Edward Island, Trudeau said the fires in BC and the NWT are “top of mind” for him and his government..“People are facing horrific situations. People are fleeing for their lives. They’re worried about their communities and Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast are watching in horror the images of apocalyptic devastation and fires going on in communities that so many of us know and so many of us have friends in,” Trudeau said..Thus far there have been no reports of any major outages from energy producers or infrastructure operators..In May, wildfires in both Alberta and BC knocked out about 319,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day or almost 4% of Canada’s production. In 2016, the Fort McMurray fires shut down more than 1 million barrels per day, or nearly 40% of Canada’s oil production for more than three months..Trans Mountain is about 85% compete and will begin pumping 890,000 barrels per day by early next year. The federal government bought the line in 2018 and provided a $7.4 billion loan guarantee to build the expansion to the West Coast..Those costs have since quadrupled to $30.1 billion.
