Trans Mountain seeking heirs of Brandon’s first postmaster

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This article was published 18/09/2021 (1659 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Trans Mountain representatives are attempting to track down the heirs of James C. Kavanagh, Brandon’s first postmaster, to help finish the multibillion-dollar expansion.

His descendants could be the key to accessing two small plots of land that are impeding the company’s $12.6-billion expansion project.

While Kavanagh, who lived from 1850 to 1922, has been dead for almost a century, he’s still listed as the registered owner of this land located in the township of Langley, B.C., according to a pair of notices that were published in several newspapers, including the Vancouver Sun, on Thursday.

In order to gain access to this land, Trans Mountain must file a right of entry application with the Canadian Energy Regulator and consult with the official landowner as well.

Thursday’s notices stated that Trans Mountain will pay the landowners a total of $378,000 if they help along with this process, especially since the company needs the right of entry by Dec. 1.

If no agreement with the landowners can be reached, the Canadian Energy Regulator can still ultimately grant Trans Mountain the right to enter the property anyway.

According to a 2017 report from Trans Mountain, Kavanagh originally bought these plots of land back in 1911, right before Canadian National Railway tracks were being laid in that part of British Columbia.

However, before moving to the west coast, Kavanagh made his money as a hotelier in Winnipeg, while also serving as Brandon’s first postmaster in 1881 and a city alderman in 1884.

Even though Kavanagh died in 1922, the Manitoba Historical Society believes that he fathered six children, whose descendants may be living somewhere in Canada or the United States.

Because of this, Trans Mountain has been searching for Kavanagh’s heirs since at least 2017, attempting to track them down by working alongside forensic genealogists from a company called Gen-Find Research Associates Inc.

While Trans Mountain eventually determined that Kavanagh’s closest living kin are his granddaughters Kay Fabbri-Benham and M. Doreen Appleby, company officials weren’t able to make contact with them at their last known residences, which were located in Norwalk, Conn. and San Diego, Calif., respectively.

The federal government formally approved the Trans Mountain Expansion Project in late 2019, with the aim of twinning an existing pipeline between Alberta and British Columbia, thereby drastically increasing its capacity to ship crude and refined oil to the coast.

The township of Langley is situated roughly 50 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean, making Kavanagh’s two plots of land another potential obstacle for an expansion project that has undergone many delays and setbacks since it was first announced in 2013.

The Trans Mountain Expansion Project has also been subject to criticism from environmentalists and First Nations, who believe that the pipeline ignores Indigenous rights and represents a threat to Canada’s natural ecosystems.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson