(Photo: The Canadian Press)

By rdnewsNOW staff

unanimous ruling

Federal court dismisses First Nations’ challenges to Trans Mountain pipeline expansion

Feb 4, 2020 | 12:43 PM

OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal says the government’s decision to approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion a second time is reasonable and will stand.

In a unanimous 3-0 decision shared Tuesday, the court dismissed four challenges to the approval launched last summer by First Nations in British Columbia.

They had argued at a hearing in December that the government went into consultations with Indigenous communities in the fall of 2018 having predetermined the outcome in favour of building the project.

But the three judges who decided the case say cabinet’s second round of consultations with First Nations affected by the pipeline was “anything but a rubber-stamping exercise.”

The judges say the government made a “genuine effort” to listen to and consider the concerns raised by the First Nations and introduced new conditions to mitigate them.

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“This is a victory for common sense and the rule of law,” says Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. “We are pleased the Federal Court of Appeal made a fair decision. This ruling confirms what we’ve known all along: the Trans Mountain expansion project has been held to the highest standard at every turn.”

Kenney says now that this legal hurdle has been cleared, it is time to get the pipeline expansion built, claiming it will result in billions of dollars in economic prosperity and will create well-paying jobs throughout the country.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley was also pleased with the decision, saying that it is a vital plank in the plan to reconstruct Alberta’s economy.

“That is why we worked so hard to change national opinion, why we stood up to BC when they threatened it, and why we pressured the federal government to buy the pipeline when it was in jeopardy. Today the project is in play, and that is good news for Alberta.”

The expansion project would triple the capacity of the existing pipeline between Edmonton and a shipping terminal in Burnaby, B.C.

It has become a political football for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he insists Canada can continue to expand oil production and still meet its commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Trudeau’s government stepped up to buy the existing pipeline in 2018 after political opposition to the project from the B.C. government caused Kinder Morgan Canada to pull out from building the expansion.

The government intends to finish the expansion and then sell both the existing pipeline and the expansion back to the private sector.

It has been in talks with some Indigenous communities about the sale, but Finance Minister Bill Morneau has said the project won’t be sold until all the risks to proceeding are eliminated. Those risks included this court case.

(With file from David Opinko – Lethbridge News Now, and The Canadian Press)