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Canadian court allows new challenges to Trans Mountain expansion
WESTERN CANADA
CANADA’S Federal Court of Appeal has agreed to hear appeals against the approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. The move is the latest hurdle for the beleaguered pipeline, which was bought by Ottawa last year amid fears that previous operator Kinder Morgan would scrap the project altogether. The expan- sion plan then had its previous federal approval overturned and had to go through a new review process that was concluded earlier this year after regulators were satisfied that the project’s developers had taken steps to address previous concerns. This included a new round of consul- tations after these were found to be inadequate the first time. However, opponents are claiming that the new consultation round did not go far enough either.
The federal court has said it will hear chal- lenges from six indigenous groups that oppose the expansion project relating to the adequacy of the government’s latest consultations with them. The court said short, strict deadlines would be set for the challenges to be heard.
The court will not allow a further six chal- lenges on environmental and alleged conflict of interest grounds to proceed.
“The applicants do acknowledge that the Government of Canada introduced some new initiatives to assist consultation and added some conditions on the project approval that was ulti- mately given,” the court said in its decision. “But to them this is just window-dressing, box-ticking and nice sounding words, not the hard work of taking on board their concerns, exploring possi- ble solutions and collaborating to get to a better place.”
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation, one of the indig- enous groups that challenged the project’s approval, said it ultimately expected the court to overturn it again.
“It was clear that Canada had already made up their mind as the owners of the project,” said Tsleil-Waututh Chief Leah George-Wilson. “Canada continued to do the legal minimum and in our view, fell well below the mark again.”
But the Canadian government maintains that it has taken the necessary steps to allow the pipe- line to be re-approved and has said it is prepared to defend its decision in court.
The Coldwater Indian Band, the Squa- mish Nation, the Upper Nicola Band and the Secwepemc Nation are the other First Nations challenging the project’s re-approval.
As of two weeks ago, some construction work on the pipeline was already underway. The Crown corporation that owns the existing Trans Mountain project and the planned expansion has said construction on the new pipeline will be complete by mid-2022. However, the latest legal challenges could delay this timeline.
The challenges come as Canada continues to
pursue the development of major new pipeline new consultation
projects out of the Alberta oil sands to alleviate the pipeline capacity crunch in the province, but plans continue to be held up. TC Energy – for- merly TransCanada – is also battling to build its Keystone XL project from Alberta to Nebraska, where it will connect to infrastructure on which oil can be shipped on to the US Gulf Coast.
Last week, Suncor Energy’s CEO, Mark Lit- tle, said last week that he thought the political situation in the US was increasing the risk asso- ciated with investing in Keystone XL. Suncor has not been immediately available to clarify Little’s comments.
Nonetheless, Keystone XL received a boost in August when a court in Nebraska affirmed an alternative route through the state, raising hopes the project might soon proceed after being delayed for around 10 years.™
round did not go far enough either.
Opponents are
claiming that the
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 36 10•September•2019