Just a day after the CEO of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project said the 12.6-billion dollar development was on time and on budget, protesters are claiming they've slowed it down.
Demonstrators occupying a grove of trees in Burnaby say in a statement that they have prevented Trans Mountain from working in that area, pushing the project's completion date to 2023.
CEO Ian Anderson says the pipeline, which more than triples the amount of bitumen moving from the Edmonton-area to port in Burnaby, has overcome many hurdles and will wrap up by 2022.
A spokesman for the protesters says court documents show that in order to meet that date, Trans Mountain had to start work by this summer in the area where campers are perched in trees, and that didn't happen, so they believe they have disrupted those plans.