City of Burnaby plans to take Trans Mountain pipeline fight to Supreme Court of Canada

The City of Burnaby is taking its fight against construction of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to Canada’s highest court, after lower courts and a national board rejected their challenge. On Tuesday, Mayor Derek Corrigan said the city intends to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear its challenge of a National Energy Board decision that came down in December. That ruling said Kinder Morgan is not required to comply with two sections of Burnaby’s bylaws on land and tree clearances as it expands the pipeline, which will triple the amount of diluted bitumen and other oil products moving between the Edmonton-area and port facilities in Burnaby. The city filed for leave to appeal the NEB decision in February, but the Federal Court of Appeal denied its application on Friday. The court dismissed Burnaby’s filing without reasons, but Corrigan said the judges should have explained why the provincial government was not being allowed to protect B.C.’s environmental interests. “Very clearly, it’s something the [lower] court should have dealt with,” the mayor said in a statement. “We will, therefore, now ask the Supreme Court of Canada to perform this function.” Corrigan says the city has asked its legal counsel to file the appeal application within 60 days. Thousands of protesters have rallied against the $7.4-billion project at Kinder Morgan’s Westridge Marine and Burnaby terminals over the past weeks, according to RCMP. By early Saturday evening, Protect the Inlet spokesperson Virginia Cleaveland said 58 protesters had been arrested for violating a court-ordered injunction, bringing the week’s total to 173 arrests. Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and NDP MP Kennedy Stewart were among those arrested and briefly taken into custody on Friday. Activists had planned to continue daily protests until Monday, the environmental deadline for Kinder Morgan to finish clearing trees in the area before migratory birds begin nesting. On Friday, the company said preparatory work for the project had been completed in time to meet the deadline. The company said crews were finishing clean-up work such as removing salvageable timber and waste wood. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the federal court’s decision against Burnaby was “another victory” for the economy.