Treaty rights won’t stop Site C: Ottawa
The federal government will not argue against halting construction of the Site C hydroelectric dam while a B.C. court decides if the project violates constitutionally protected treaty rights.
However, a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Monday the government will continue to defend the federal approval given for the project in December 2014, even though that approval was given using an environmental review process McKenna herself has said is fundamentally flawed.
Site C is an 1,100-megawatt dam and generating station on the Peace River in northern B.C. that will flood parts of the traditional territory of the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations. In January, they filed a civil court case against the provincial government, B.C. Hydro and the federal government asking a judge to decide if their rights were being violated by the dam. A few weeks later, West Moberly asked the court for an injunction to halt construction pending the outcome of the rights case.
On May 11, lawyers for Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould filed a notice that Canada would remain neutral on the question of the injunction, meaning Canada won’t argue against the idea of postponing construction for months, if not years, while the rights case winds through the court.
Wilson-Raybould has been silent on Site C since being named Canada’s minister of justice in 2015, but in 2012, when she was the B.C. regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations, she said the project was “running roughshod” over treaty rights. The Justice Department on Monday directed questions to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
McKenna’s spokeswoman, Caroline Theriault, said the injunction request is just a procedural step regarding construction and that is B.C. jurisdiction not federal. However, she said Canada will defend the environmental assessment and Crown consultation processes and the federally issued permits required for construction.
McKenna has legislation before the House of Commons to overhaul the process for environmental assessment of major projects such as hydro dams and pipelines, arguing the former government’s procedures had skewed too far toward proponents.