Is Trans Mountain construction continuing, despite what Kinder Morgan said?

Only a day after Kinder Morgan announced it would suspend all non-essential spending on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, heavy machinery was at work digging at the site.

Nobody knows yet what this means for the pipeline, and Kinder Morgan has not responded to National Observer's request for a comment. It hasn't been confirmed that the company doing the digging is Kinder Morgan. Yet it has some worried.

"Obviously, we see they're still constructing," said Will George, an Indigenous opponent of the pipeline, and guardian of the Watch House on Burnaby mountain. "They said they were suspending construction. But there's a lot of construction near the watch house and heavy machinery going around."​

As noted by Kinder Morgan's chairman and chief executive officer Steve Kean in a talk with investors this morning, there's a lot of uncertainty around the project today.

“We are at a point where our spending would need to increase significantly, in order to get full construction activity,” he said.

“The need for certainty becomes acute at this stage. Full construction would reach $200-$300 million a month. That level is unsupportable unless we are confident that we can finish what we start.”

As for George, he's certain he will continue his opposition. "We're just going to continue to push forward and make sure we're stopping them," he said.