Rushed the project through the environmental assessment
Two B.C. First Nations filed for a judicial review of TransCanada Corp.’s Coastal GasLink pipeline project in a Vancouver court house this morning.
The Nadleh Whut’en First Nation and the Nak’azdli First Nation argue the Crown’s ‘duty-to-consult’ was not met when the province’s Environmental Assessment Office approved the 650-kilometer natural gas pipeline on October 24.
“We took every step possible to make our concerns known to B.C. and to work with the province to have our concerns addressed,” said Chief Martin Louie of the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation. “Unfortunately, B.C. rushed the project through the environmental assessment process and left us with no other option.”
The First Nations examined the 32 conditions inside the assessment certificate and found they did not adequately reflect the recommendations they made in hundreds of pages of submissions to the office, said their lawyer Merle Alexander.
“They’re challenging primarily on the basis that there’s been a failure to fulfill the duty-to-consult and accommodate the First Nations,” said Alexander, a partner at Gowlings in Vancouver.
This is the first legal challenge brought by a First Nation against the LNG industry, said Alexander. There has been an active threat of legal opposition to the Petronas LNG project but it’s currently in a holding pattern, he added.