A new judicial review has been filed against the PRGT pipeline.
This comes just after a case against the pipeline was dismissed in August.
The first case was against the BC Energy Regulator, for approving the start of construction in August 2024 without a cumulative effects assessment. That judicial review was argued at the BC Supreme Court in March and was dismissed. Ecojustice lawyer Matt Hulse says his clients are not appealing that decision.
This is new judicial review that has also been filed in the BC Supreme Court. It challenges a decision by the Minister of Environment that the PRGT project was substantially started by the November 25, 2024, deadline in the project’s environmental assessment certificate. (although the decision was delegated to - and made by - the Chief Executive Assessment Officer, Alex MacLennan).
This case does not involve the BC Energy Regulator.
And this is not exactly the same group of clients as the first case. Both cases involve the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition and the Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association. However, this new case also involves a local resident, Kathy Larson, but not the Kispiox Band.
Their application asks the court to find that the head of the Environmental Assessment Office was unreasonable in determining that construction on the PRGT project was substantially started before the November 25, 2024 deadline when its environmental assessment certificate would have expired.
The coalition argues the limited construction that occurred only three months before the deadline is not a substantial start of the massive pipeline project. They say that after nearly ten years of inactivity, the pipeline company only partially cleared trees from about five per cent of the pipeline route and built some limited supporting infrastructure.
The pipeline, which has faced strong opposition from some frontline communities, will cut across northern B.C. to the West Coast, transporting fracked gas for export overseas as liquefied natural gas (LNG). The coalition concerned that the PRGT pipeline will have significant impacts on communities and the environment in the region.
In June, Tamara Davidson, Minister of Parks, told us;
Attributable to Tamara Davidson, Minister of Environment and Parks:
“The Environmental Assessment Office’s chief executive assessment officer has determined that the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project was substantially started by the deadline.
The substantial start determination, which is an administrative decision, was delegated to the CEAO, consistent with most substantial start decisions. I am confident the CEAO has thoroughly and thoughtfully considered all the information that relates to the determination, including the significant amount of interest from First Nations in the region and members of the public.”
Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association’s Graeme Pole said;
“Citizens of British Columbia should be alarmed by this decision made on behalf of Environment Minister Davidson. That the government would deem a project of such magnitude to be substantially started when a pittance of actual work has been completed would be laughable if it didn’t have such grave consequences for local communities, and for the regional and global environments.”
And according to Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition’s Co-executive Director, Shannon McPhail;
“This doesn’t just lower the bar for a substantial start determination, it eliminates it completely.”