Canada's Federal Court of Appeal agreed to allow six applications to contest approvals for government-owned Trans Mountain Corp.'s expansion, throwing the future of the recently resurrected project into doubt.
The court was responding to 12 applications by environmental groups, First Nations and the City of Vancouver, which sought to overturn the latest approvals from the line. In a Sept. 4 statement, the court said that only six of the applications would be heard and they would be "limited to the narrow issue of the adequacy of the Government of Canada's further consultation with Indigenous peoples and First Nations" between Aug. 30, 2018, which was the date of an earlier court decision, and June 18, which was the Governor in Council's approval, "and related issues."
Canada's government bought the 300,000 barrel-per-day Trans Mountain system and the beleaguered 690,000 bbl/d expansion for C$4.5 billion from Kinder Morgan Inc. just over a year ago after the Houston-based pipeline giant said it would scrap the project amid court challenges and regulatory bickering. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government would take it over because of national economic interests. The Federal Court of Appeal quashed construction permits for the line one day before the deal close, leading the federal government to redo regulatory work. New approvals for the expansion were issued in June and construction restarted in August.
The case is Raincoast Conservation Foundation et al. v. Attorney General of Canada et al., 2019 FCA 224.
