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NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil
reaching completion. However, while the Supreme Court has brought one legal chal- lenge to an end, others remain. The Canadian Press reported last week that at least two “sig- nificant” legal challenges mean that the Trans Mountain expansion’s future remains “far from certain”. Both of these legal challenges question the validity of Ottawa’s 2019 re-approval of the project. If either challenge succeeds, this could yet make it more difficult for the project to move any further forward.
Indigenous interest
The current status – and future – of the Trans Mountain expansion illustrate the divergence in attitudes towards the project among local abo- riginal communities.
The federal government – the sole owner and operator of the pipeline system through Trans Mountain Corp., a Crown corporation – wants to return the pipeline to the private sector once the expansion project has been built. This has been talked up as a means of increasing indigenous participation in the pipeline and the Canadian energy industry more broadly. Indeed, at least three indigenous groups have expressed an interest in buying at least a majority stake in the pipeline, if not the entire Trans Mountain system. And Ottawa is reported to be studying the best options for indigenous communities to reap economic benefits from the project.
However, Pierre-Olivier Herbert, the direc- tor of communications for Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau, said on January 17 that
Ottawa would remain the sole owner of the pipe- line as long as any risk remained to construction of the expansion.
At the same time, certain First Nations oppose the expansion project, and are among those mounting legal challenges against it. Eight First Nations are alleging that the federal gov- ernment did not fulfil its duty to consult them when it re-approved the expansion project. The Canadian Press noted that most of these First Nations were also part of the first successful chal- lenge that halted construction on the project in 2018. They argued in a hearing in December that the federal government was always intending to approve the project again, with the second round of consultations being merely a “smoke screen”. The Federal Court of Appeal has reserved its judgment in this case.
The court also refused to hear a challenge of the re-approval from indigenous communities and two environmental groups who alleged that Ottawa was violating the Species at Risk Act because the pipeline would further endanger southern resident killer whales. The groups are now appealing to the Supreme Court to hear this case.
In the meantime, construction on the Trans Mountain expansion is underway. The first pipe was put into the ground in December, and plans call for more pipe to be laid and work on several terminals and pumping stations to be started during the first half of 2020. Barring further delays, construction is due to finish in 2022. However, given the pipeline’s progress to date, further delays cannot be ruled out.
At least three indigenous groups have expressed an interest in buying at least a majority stake in the pipeline.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to complete the Trans Mountain expansion.
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