Vancouver, Squamish pipeline challenges dismissed by court in B.C.
VICTORIA — The City of Vancouver and Squamish Nation have lost legal challenges aimed at quashing an environmental assessment certificate issued by British Columbia for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
In separate rulings issued Thursday, a B.C. Supreme Court judge found that the decision by the province’s environment and natural gas ministers to issue the certificate was reasonable and based on sufficient consultation with the First Nation.
“It was certainly open to the ministers to require more than they did with respect to public consultation and the assessment of relevant environmental considerations. The question is whether they were obliged to do so,” Justice Christopher Grauer wrote in his ruling dismissing the city’s challenge.
“Though it may have disappointed many that British Columbia did not take advantage of additional procedures available to it through the (environmental) assessment process, it does not follow from that choice … that British Columbia acted unfairly or irrationally.”