Transcanada Corporation has filed a 30,000-page application to convert an existing gas pipeline to carry oil from Western Canada to Cornwall, Ontario. It also wants to build a new pipeline to carry the crude eastward through Quebec to Atlantic Canada.
The planned pipeline will pass to the north of the Montreal region, but Transcanada plans to connect an offshoot at its proposed Mascouche, Quebec, pumping station, whence it will wind through Terrebonne and Laval in making its way toward Montreal’s Suncor refinery.
The line is projected to span a muskrat nature reserve on two small islands where it will traverse the outlet of Rivière des Prairies between Laval and Montreal. However, Transcanada has offered to build a broader alternate crossing upstream that will skirt the muskrat reserve.
“When it comes to the nature reserve, we will ensure that the pipeline is buried very deep beneath the ground and ensure that the land is restored to the way that we found it,” Transcanada spokesman Jonathan Abdecassis commented. “Also, where it crosses waterways, we traditionally use thicker-walled pipe and put extra sensors and one-way [anti-backup] check valves at either end.”