TAXPAYERS ON HOOK FOR SURE-TO-FAIL LITIGATION

This week’s decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to dismiss an appeal by the City of Burnaby concerning construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion should put an end to frivolous litigation that has wasted tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Burnaby was seeking to rescind a decision by a lower court that denied the city leave to appeal a ruling by the National Energy Board that allowed Kinder Morgan to ignore local bylaws in the construction phase of the project.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan admitted Thursday that losing in court was no surprise. “I’m a lawyer and certainly I knew that the odds of that being successful were relatively small,” he said, adding that the city’s lawyer offered the same opinion.

Opponents of the pipeline expansion have now lost 17 consecutive court challenges, including one by the City of Vancouver that sought to overturn environmental certificates that the B.C. Liberal government had granted to Kinder Morgan. Vancouver was ordered to pay Kinder Morgan’s legal costs.

Municipal governments abuse their citizens by using tax dollars to obstruct an approved project, one that the courts have found to have been rigorously reviewed with ample opportunity for meaningful consultation. Using taxpayers’ money to launch court actions they know will fail is unacceptable.

Mayors and their councils must not pursue their narrow ideological goals at public expense. The courts have made it clear that their obstructionist tactics will not succeed.

Since the federal government has become the owner of the Trans Mountain pipeline, Canadian taxpayers will end up paying legal costs for both sides of a court challenge if B.C. and municipalities continue to misuse the legal system in their attempt to kill the project.

Enforcement of an injunction this week that removed the blight of Camp Cloud from Burnaby Mountain demonstrates that the public is growing impatient with protesters invading neighbourhoods, blocking roads and lighting “sacred” fires during one of the worst wildfire seasons on record.

It’s time for municipalities that launched these court actions to admit defeat and turn their attention to road repair, garbage collection and public safety.