Trudeau’s Pipeline Approval Faces Court Challenge From Conservation Groups
Conservation groups filed new court challenge to federal government's approval of Trans Mountain oil pipeline
Huffington Post Canada
By Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Conservation groups have filed a new court challenge to the federal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline.
The request for judicial review filed with the Federal Court of Appeal late Monday in Calgary is at least the eighth legal test of the controversial project, which will almost triple the capacity of an existing, 1,150-kilometre pipeline from near Edmonton to Burnaby, BC.
The Liberal government gave the green light to the $6.8-billion pipeline expansion late last month, despite a thicket of existing legal challenges to the regulatory process.
Ecojustice lawyers, on behalf of the Living Oceans Society and Raincoast Conservation, say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet broke the law when it relied on a National Energy Board assessment of Kinder Morgan’s controversial pipeline expansion.
The groups argue the board — and thus the Liberal government — did not properly take into account the Trans Mountain pipeline’s impact on endangered southern resident killer whales. The newly expanded pipeline will increase oil tanker traffic from the port in Burnaby to about 34 ships a month, up from the current five.
“We’ll be asking the court to overturn the government’s unlawful approval and send it back to cabinet with instructions that it has to meet all the legal requirements,” Ecojustice lawyer Dyna Tuytel said in a release…
To read the full article visit the Huffington Post Canada website.
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