For more than 60 years, Trans Mountain has taken pride in developing constructive working relationships with communities along our pipeline between Strathcona County, AB and Burnaby, BC. In August 2014, we initiated Technical Working Groups (TWGs), as part of our comprehensive engagement program.

These groups provide an opportunity for Project technical teams to work directly with municipal staff, as well as infrastructure and utility companies, to gather information and input needed to refine engineering, routing and construction plans. The sessions also serve as a forum to raise concerns and address issues.

Some of the topics of discussion include pipeline alignment, construction methodology, timing and communication, socio-economic effects monitoring, municipal and community water sources, stakeholder land use, existing and future infrastructure, by-law compliance, operations, traffic management, construction safety, regional parks considerations and watercourse crossings.

Following the National Energy Board’s (NEB) recommendation to approve the Expansion Project, Trans Mountain revised the Terms of Reference for the TWGs, as required by the NEB. The groups are now focusing on municipalities in route communities as the Project is now focused on refining and finalizing design and construction plans for the pipeline and facilities.

Trans Mountain will use a Rolling Action Plan (RAP) of Mutual Interests to capture key topics of interest and concern, decisions made and action items with dates assigned to the parties. The RAP will assist TWG participants in keeping track of action items, prioritizing tasks and aligning resources and decisions to those priorities. It will provide a summary of outcomes from the meetings, including issues resolved. Outcomes from the TWGs will be summarized in filings to the NEB as required by Condition 49.

Trans Mountain remains committed to working with municipal governments to address interests and concerns related to the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, as well as the Expansion Project. The input provided to our Project team has already, and continues to, influence refinement of the design and construction plans for the expansion.