Energy regulator slashes amount of Trans Mountain penalty for birds nest violations

Trans Mountain will have to pay a $4,000 penalty for several violations that disrupted birds’ nests in Burnaby in 2021—but that’s a dramatic reduction from the original penalty.

The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) originally handed Trans Mountain an $88,000 fine in February for failing to properly train its contractors, resulting in “potential and real harm to the environment.”

Trans Mountain appealed the ruling and the penalty—and while the CER’s appeals panel found that Trans Mountain had indeed committed the violations at hand, the penalty wasn’t properly determined in accordance with CER regulations.

Several birds nests were moved or replaced, including a partially constructed American robin nest at the Burnaby terminal on May 13, 2021. There were several other violations in “Spread 7” of the construction route, which includes some construction sites in Burnaby.

One of them, the destruction of an Anna’s hummingbird nest, occurred on April 12, 2021—the same day that the discovery of Anna’s hummingbird nests along a Burnaby construction site resulted in a stop-work order in the area for several months.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) told Burnaby Beacon at the time that it sent an enforcement officer to the site along the Brunette River after concerns from the public that construction activities were disturbing the migratory birds’ nesting season, in contravention of the Migratory Birds Convention Act.

“Given that it is nesting season, migratory birds are particularly vulnerable at this time. Cutting vegetation and trees or carrying out other disruptive activities such as bulldozing or using chainsaws and heavy machinery in the vicinity of active nests will likely result in disturbance or destruction of those nests,” ministry spokesperson Samantha Bayard said in an emailed statement in April 2021.

While the expansion project was at that time expected to be completed by December 2022, the latest updated schedule by Trans Mountain projects that mechanical completion is expected by the third quarter of 2023.

The company cited several challenges, including the devastating floods in BC in 2021 and “stand-down costs due to seasonal work issues including bird windows, extreme heat and fire seasons” as contributors to the delays.

The cost of the expansion has also risen considerably since 2020.

“The total Project cost has increased from $12.6 to $21.4 billion, which includes the costs of all known enhancements, changes, delays and financing, including the substantial impact of the November 2021 floods in the Hope, Coquihalla, and Fraser Valley areas,” reads a company update from February 2022.

With files from Dustin Godfrey.