Enbridge defends recent ad campaign, critics say company is playing 'catch up'
By Vivian Luk, The Canadian Press
August 9, 2012
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Enbridge+defends+recent+campaign+critics+company+playing+catch/7062545/story.html
VANCOUVER - Those reading major newspapers in British Columbia, Alberta or
Ontario over the past two days might have noticed a full-page ad placed by
Calgary-based Enbridge.
The statement from the oil giant emphasized the company's "99.999 per cent"
pipeline safety record and its commitment to preventing oil spills.
While Enbridge (TSX: ENB) maintains the ad was not a direct reaction to
negative publicity it has been receiving in recent months, some critics are
viewing it as an effort to win over those opposed to one of the company's major
proposed Canadian projects.
Enbridge's pipeline safety record has been attacked recently by environmental
advocates, politicians and the media due to several spills from its pipelines
in the U.S. The criticism comes as the company is trying to gain approval for
its controversial Northern Gateway project, which would take Alberta oil to
northern B.C. to be shipped to foreign markets.
Mike Hillman, a former B.C. Liberal party campaign manager and a former public
affairs consultant, said the ad indicates Enbridge may be trying to "play catch
up" with those opposed to Northern Gateway.
Hillman said if Enbridge is trying to garner support for the project, it should
have made the company's pipeline safety statistics more apparent to the public
sooner.
"If in fact you have an exceptional record and you have qualities that are in
fact very real, then there's no reason why those things shouldn't be known to
people much earlier in its existence," he said.
"By bringing out those things now, by the sounds of it, to counter some of the
reactions to their project in B.C and to also recent incidents that have
happened, it's a bit of catch up."
University of British Columbia social marketing professor Darren Dahl said the
ad, which is a written statement by the company's president Al Monaco and chief
executive officer Pat Daniel, may also be an attempt to move public sentiment
by giving out information that Enbridge feels is more accurate.
"If you asked someone 10 years ago about pipelines, they probably had no
opinion or they're like, 'Yeah they're well-managed,'" Dahl said.
"But because of the high stakes of the (Northern Gateway) proposal, and there
has been some pipeline incidents in past years that has caught the media's
attention, people don't have the same neutral or positive attitude...towards
pipelines."
Indeed, Enbridge's ad stresses the necessity of getting the facts on pipelines
straight.
"Pipeline safety has been much in the news lately, and so it's important to
give the issue some context-to look beyond the latest headline and recognize
the outstanding long-term safety record of this important energy delivery
system," Monaco and Daniel wrote.
But the company's executive vice president of western access said the ad is not
a direct response to some of the negative publicity it has been subjected to.
"We're just trying to assure the public that we do take safety very seriously,"
Janet Holder told the Canadian Press in a phone interview.
"This just further enhances that we take safety very seriously and that our
track record would show that."
Last month, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board criticized Enbridge's
response to a pipeline spill of millions of litres of oil into Michigan's
Kalamazoo River on July 25, 2010, affecting more than 50 kilometres of
waterways and wetlands.
Shortly after the scathing U.S. report, which likened Enbridge to the "Keystone
Kops," Enbridge announced it would invest another $500 million in safety
improvements to the Northern Gateway pipeline.
But the oil giant continues to see opposition to the proposal.
Hillman said Enbridge would need to do much more than placing an ad if it wants
to persuade British Columbians to support Northern Gateway.
"As much as you like to have a large flag that you can wave, the reality is
you're still dealing with aboriginal communities, and with others all the way
along the pipeline and other interest groups," he said.
"You need to be able to work with them and develop those relationships as well."
Holder agreed.
"There's no question, we know we have a lot of work to do, especially in the
province of British Columbia, to convince the public that Enbridge is a
respectable company, that we can build pipelines in a safe and reliable and
sustainable way," she said.
"I wouldn't say we're ready to say it's working yet - I believe we have a lot
of more work to do, but we have some time on our side, and we will continue
helping the public understand who we are."
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