The City of Burnaby and its residents would see significant local benefits including job creation and tax revenue through development and ongoing operation of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.

Burnaby students, community groups, local businesses and taxpayers already benefit from the presence of Trans Mountain, North America’s only oil pipeline to the West Coast.

The oil industry is a significant taxpayer and creator of jobs in Burnaby. In addition to Trans Mountain, Burnaby is home to a Chevron Canada refinery and the Suncor, Shell and Imperial distribution and storage facilities.

Trans Mountain’s major storage, distribution and marine shipping facilities are located in Burnaby, paying the city more than $7 million a year in property taxes. That payment by Trans Mountain represented nearly three per cent of total property tax revenue in Burnaby in 2014, making it the city’s third-largest taxpayer. Expansion of Trans Mountain facilities in Burnaby would boost Trans Mountain’s property taxes to $13 million per year, which is more than five per cent of the total property tax amount the City collected in 2014.

(Burnaby and four other municipalities recently filed to the National Energy Board a study calculating the long-term costs to carry out municipal operations such as road work or a water main crossing in the right-of-way for expanded sections of the Trans Mountain Pipeline system. The report estimates that over 50 years, those operations would cost Burnaby $17.6 million. In the same period of time, Burnaby would collect $300 million in property taxes for the expanded sections of the Trans Mountain system — not including future property tax increases.

Since 2007, Trans Mountain has contributed more than $200,000 to support school libraries, playgrounds and emergency preparedness supplies as well as community groups and events in Burnaby. A further $250,000 has been donated to BCIT’s Marine Campus in support of a marine simulation centre to train ship operators.

The company’s Application to the National Energy Board shows the Expansion Project would be a strong creator of jobs, economic activity and additional taxes supporting Burnaby in both the short and long term.

Local business interest in the $5.4 billion pipeline Expansion Project has been strong. For example in 2013, a Burnaby Board of Trade event featured Kinder Morgan Canada President Ian Anderson talking about the economic benefits of the Project. It drew 100 attendees, notably a contingent of Burnaby-based companies with an interest in participating in the construction project and/or the decades of operations that would follow. Those companies represent skilled tradespeople, consulting engineers and marine service providers, along with transportation and equipment and service providers.

So far, more than 1,100 businesses including many in Burnaby have registered an interest in participating in the Project by filling out an online form on Trans Mountain’s Contractor and Supplier Information web page.

Across BC, direct benefits of construction include 36,000 person-years of work and almost $2 billion in wages that will support families and communities.

The Project calls for $1.15 billion of construction spending in the Metro Vancouver region for pipeline and terminal infrastructure work. A majority of that activity (55 per cent) would take place in Burnaby, where $750 million would be spent for upgrades to Burnaby Terminal and Westridge Marine Terminal. In addition to building the new pipeline, up to 600 construction workers would be needed for expansion of Burnaby Terminal and 95 workers would be needed to expand Westridge Marine Terminal. A project such as Trans Mountain is a foundational segment of a well-paying long-term career for workers in the construction sector.

Along with direct construction employment, the Trans Mountain Expansion Project would create 15,000 person-years of work in the Project supply chain as well as induced or spinoff jobs in BC.

Supply chain job opportunities for Burnaby companies during construction would encompass:

  • Professional services such as engineering (23.4 per cent of total supply chain jobs)
  • Manufacturing (22.1 per cent)
  • Wholesale trade (13.7 per cent)
  • Financial services (10.2 per cent)
  • Transportation (7.9 per cent)

Induced job opportunities for Burnaby companies would encompass:

  • Retail trade (24.3 per cent)
  • Accommodation and food services (11 per cent)
  • Personal services (7.4 per cent)
  • Manufacturing (5.8 per cent)
  • Administrative services (5.4 per cent)
  • Wholesale trade (5 per cent)
  • Professional services (4.8 per cent)
  • Health care and social assistance (4.7 per cent)

Nationally there would be at least 50,000 person-years of work over 20 years of operations, including 30,000 direct, supply chain and induced jobs in BC. That’s equivalent to 1,500 ongoing full-time jobs. Trans Mountain must directly hire new employees to run the expanded facilities. Supply chain jobs represent opportunities for independent businesses to support the pipeline in sectors ranging from construction to accounting and engineering. Induced jobs would be created when direct and supply chain workers reinject money into the economy by spending their wages in places such as retail stores and restaurants.

Trans Mountain would add 50 permanent direct jobs at Burnaby Terminal and Westridge Marine Terminal. That’s just 16 per cent of the total work the Project would create. Supply chain jobs, meanwhile, represent more than 60 per cent of person-years of employment in support of Trans Mountain pipeline operations:

  • Construction (23.8 per cent of total supply chain jobs)
  • Financial services (15.6 per cent)
  • Administrative services (14 per cent)
  • Professional services (12.2 per cent)
  • Manufacturing (6.9 per cent)
  • Transportation (6.1 per cent)

Induced jobs in sectors such as retail trade and accommodation and food services account for about 23 per cent of permanent work that’s supported through the payrolls of direct and supply chain workers operating the expanded pipeline.

Workforce spending is a significant aspect of the Project. Trans Mountain anticipates that local and non-local construction workers building the Metro Vancouver portion of the Project (including Burnaby Terminal and Westridge Marine Terminal) will spend $158.9 million from 2016 to 2018, including $32 million for hotels and $16 million for restaurants.