B.C. Supreme Court dismisses challenges over pipeline assessment

VICTORIA — The City of Vancouver and the Squamish Nation have lost legal challenges aimed at quashing an environmental assessment certificate issued by B.C. 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 J. 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.”

The legal challenges are just two of several hanging over Kinder Morgan Canada’s pipeline expansion, but the rulings were nonetheless hailed by the Alberta and federal governments as a step forward for the project.

There is one week left until the company’s imposed deadline to make a decision about proceeding with construction.

The Federal Court of Appeal has yet to rule on a consolidated challenge filed by numerous petitioners against the National Energy Board and federal cabinet approval of the project.

The B.C. government has also asked the province’s Court of Appeal to determine whether it can pass legislation that would require companies to get provincial permits before increasing the flow of bitumen through its lands.

The cases decided Thursday focused on the previous B.C. Liberal government’s issuance of an environmental assessment certificate in January 2017, about two months after the federal government gave the project the green light.

A central issue in Vancouver’s argument was whether B.C. erred when it primarily relied on the NEB review. The city argued B.C. was required to conduct consultations on the project’s environmental, economic, social, heritage or health effects.

The city said in a statement that it was “disappointed” and would consider filing an appeal.