PIPELINE REVIEW UNDER ATTACK
Indigenous leaders in British Columbia are threatening future court challenges of the National Energy Board’s review of the marine shipping effects of an expanded Trans Mountain pipeline. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, says the project is a “stinker” that will worsen climate change. The Federal Court of Appeal ruled in August that the energy board failed to examine the project’s impacts on the marine environment, and the federal government ordered the board to reconsider that part of the process by Feb. 22. Eugene Kung of West Coast Environmental Law says the review is rushed and too limited in scope, as it only covers up to 12 nautical miles off the B.C. coastline, and is likely to prompt fresh court challenges from the project’s opponents. Phillip accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of lacking a conscience or any concern for future generations.