Days after two bids by the government of British Columbia and a B.C. city to appeal a National Energy Board ruling were dismissed in a federal court, Alberta’s premier called it another victory for the province.
Rachel Notley said she is looking forward to overcoming additional legal hurdles to make way for the Trans Mountain expansion project.
On Friday, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against two applications from the B.C. government and the city of Burnaby to appeal the NEB ruling that allowed Kinder Morgan (the company behind the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion) to bypass local bylaws on construction of the expansion.
The ruling in December stated the company doesn’t have to follow zoning and tree-cutting guidelines from the City of Burnaby, because the federal scope and jurisdiction supersedes local bylaws.
B.C. had argued the NEB was wrong in defining federal jurisdiction too broadly.
Notley responded to the decision for the first time on camera Monday morning at a transit announcement in St. Albert.
“Alberta won an important case late last week,” Notley said. “A few weeks ago the B.C. government tried to appeal a decision of the [NEB], which stopped the City of Burnaby from throwing up roadblocks to the Trans Mountain pipeline.
“Our government intervened on behalf of the people of Alberta, and late last week, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the B.C. government’s application to appeal, and went further to award us costs.”
Notley called the decision “another victory for our economy, another victory for our climate plan, another victory for the pipeline, and another victory for all Albertans and all Canadians.”
Kinder Morgan released a statement to CTV News in response to the decision:
“We welcome the decision by the Federal Court of Appeal to deny motions filed by the BC Government and the City of Burnaby seeking to appeal the National Energy Board’s decision to relieve Trans Mountain of the requirement to obtain plan approvals from the City of Burnaby for certain work at the Westridge and Burnaby Terminals. Kinder Morgan is committed to continuing to work with stakeholders in good faith as we continue with construction of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.”
The expansion has been the subject of protests in Burnaby in recent weeks, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and an NDP MP were arrested during protests Friday – and musical artists Sarah Harmer and Grimes joined the protests over the weekend.
“We understand there is a right to free speech, and people are going to engage in that, but we also understand that the rule of law needs to be enforced and it is our view that it is being enforced,” Notley said.
While Friday’s decision eliminates one legal hurdle for the project, there are more on the horizon, and it isn’t clear when those decisions could be released.
“There are other issues that are outstanding, but at the end of the day, I feel quite confident that we’ll be able to move forward when those decisions are made,” Notley said.
The province and Kinder Morgan hope to have construction on the pipeline expansion underway by the end of 2018. The company plans to have the pipeline up and running by the end of 2020. The Alberta Government has budgeted to begin collecting revenue from the line in 2021-2022.
With files from CTV News and CTV Edmonton’s Bill Fortier
