FEDERAL COURT DISMISSES INDIGENOUS APPEAL OF TRANS MOUNTAIN PIPELINE EXPANSION
Feb 04, 2020
By Bob Komsic
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The Federal Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed an appeal by four Indigenous groups challenging Ottawa’s approval of the Trans Mountain expansion project.
They have 60-days to appeal to the Supreme Court.
(Reuters)
The Federal Court of Appeal, in a 3-0 decision, ruled the federal government carried out ”reasonable” and ”meaningful” consultations with Indigenous peoples affected by the long-delayed $7.4-billion project before approving the pipeline a second time.
”This was anything but a rubber-stamping exercise,” the court said.
”The end result was not a ratification of the earlier approval, but an approval with amended conditions flowing directly from renewed consultation.”
As part of the process, federal officials met with 120 Indigenous communities in Alberta and B.C.
The consultation do-over was made necessary by a Federal Court Appeal ruling in August 2018 which concluded consultations to that point had been a ”failure.”