LandKeepers News Archive
Kitimat in the Clear on Enbridge Honorariums
March 03 2010 | News Articles | Kitimat Northern Sentinel
Kitimat councillors have not accepted honorariums to attend any Enbridge community advisory board meetings.
Mayor Joanne Monaghan and councillor Randy Halyk, the two who have attended the pipeline meetings, informed the Northern Sentinel that they had not accepted the $200 honorariums after the Terrace Standard broke a story revealing that the Terrace mayor and a councillor had accepted the funding.
“I did not ever put in for an honorarium,” the Kitimat mayor said. “I didn’t apply for it because I didn’t think it was necessary.”
She said she understood how the offer could make sense to business people taking a day off to attend the Northern Gateway Project meetings intended to help steer the $4.5-billion pipeline plan through environmental review.
Halyk said he has attended the meetings, but has not filed any of his expenses.
“I have never applied,” he said.
“I didn’t believe that it was something that I would do as a councillor, or even as an independent person going in there, because I felt that you lose your independence.”
“I’ve never accepted anything from them, and I wouldn’t.”
Councillor Richard McLaren said that once an elected official accepts an honorarium, “it puts a bad taste in your mouth.”
“It’s up to somebody to say – no, I’m not going to take it. Because once you do, it’s a bad taste.”
The community advisory board forums are held to establish discussion of the project’s concerns, review studies and make recommendations.
The advisory boards have a cross-section of interested parties, including First Nations groups, business people and environmental organizations.
The pipeline’s public and government review is expected to run until the end of 2011.
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