Several First Nations are asking a Federal Court to review Ottawa’s decision to list the proposed new oil pipeline to B.C.’s coast as a “project of national interest.”
Members of the St’át’imc Chiefs Council, representing 11 communities, said Monday the decision was made in an “unlawful and unconstitutional manner.”
Ts’kw’aylaxw Chief Justin Kane said the project would impact hundreds of rivers and streams and is expected to double crude oil tanker traffic off the coast of southern B.C.
“The threat of an oil spill affecting Fraser River salmon, our fishing rights and our way of being, is heinous,” Kane said in a statement. “Yet this project was approved under the [Building Canada Act] without any impact assessment at all, and without any consultation with the St’át’imc Nation as a whole.”
A number of other B.C. and Alberta First Nations have also applied for judicial reviews of the decision.
The Tsartlip First Nation said it has not been given sufficient information about the project and its potential impacts. The Vancouver Island First Nation said it’s asking the court to confirm that Canada must meaningfully consult with the Nation before deciding that a project is in the national interest.
“The national interest designation concerns a multibillion-dollar publicly-funded project that is not expected to be completed until 2032,” said Adam Olsen, Tsartlip’s director of intergovernmental relations. “Yet the consultation and decision-making process happened in less than three months. That’s not efficient, that’s reckless.”
Other nations that have filed applications for judicial reviews include Boston Bar, Cheam, Lower Nicola, Kwikwetlem, Skeetchestn and T’Sou-ke, as well as Cold Lake First Nations in Alberta.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Oct. 1 that the Pacific Link pipeline had been listed as a project of national interest, granting it a streamlined federal permitting process.
Carney said the designation came after three months of consultation with Indigenous communities along the potential pipeline routes.
He said the federal Major Projects Office and the Canada Energy Regulator will lead the review process and stakeholder consultations for the project over the next year.
Ottawa says the pipeline from the Bruderheim area of Alberta to southern B.C. is expected to allow for the export of an additional one million barrels a day to markets in Asia.
The project will be led by Trans Mountain, while Pembina is set to act as a private-sector investor and contribute its expertise to the development.
Canada and Alberta would share equal ownership of the project, and Indigenous communities would be offered at least 10 per cent ownership interest.
Pacific Link said in an emailed statement it respects the right of Indigenous communities to raise concerns through the applications for judicial reviews. It said it is committed to working directly with Indigenous groups as the project advances.
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