Lawyers for climate activists are challenging the B.C. government’s ruling last year that backs a contentious pipeline project for transporting natural gas.
Construction of the proposed 750-kilometre Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) project, which is co-owned equally by the Nisga’a Nation and Houston-based Western LNG, would be across northern British Columbia.
The $12-billion PRGT pipeline is meant to feed the $10-billion Ksi Lisims LNG project, which would produce liquefied natural gas for export to Asia.
Matt Hulse and Daniel Cheater, who are lawyers for environmental law charity Ecojustice, appeared in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday to represent the petitioners.
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The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, the Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association and local resident Kathleen Larson are the petitioners seeking a judicial review.
They are asking B.C. Supreme Court Justice Alison Latimer to quash a ruling last June by Alex MacLennan, head of the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, that the pipeline project has been substantially started.
The respondents are PRGT, the Nisga’a Nation and B.C. Environment Minister Tamara Davidson.
The court hearings, which began on Monday, are scheduled to wrap up early next week.
PRGT initially received its environmental assessment certificate in 2014, and won approval for a five-year extension in 2019, giving the project until November, 2024, to substantially start pipeline construction to prevent the certificate from expiring.
“These deadlines exist in environmental assessment certificates to ensure that long-delayed projects cannot proceed on outdated environmental assessments,” the petitioners said in their court filing.
“The minimal construction completed between August-November 2024 was not ‘substantial’ when compared to the PRGT project as described in the environmental assessment certificate.”
Shannon McPhail, co-executive director of Skeena Watershed, said in an affidavit that her group is concerned about “the PRGT project because of the pipeline’s potential direct and indirect impacts on the Skeena watershed.”
But Eva Clayton, elected president of the Nisga’a Lisims government, has endorsed PRGT, arguing that there are global benefits to exporting LNG.
Eva Clayton, president of the Nisga'a Lisims Government, speaks in Laxgalts'ap, B.C., on Sept. 29, 2023.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The Nisga’a Nation and PRGT say Mr. MacLennan made a reasonable ruling. His ruling “is supported by reasons which show the decision is based on an internally coherent chain of analysis,” the Nisga’a said in a court filing in response to the petition. “It clearly falls within a range of reasonable outcomes and must be upheld.”
PRGT said in a court document that “the petition is without merit.”
Lawyers for the respondents are scheduled to present their arguments in court later this week.
The Nisga’a, Western LNG and a group of Western Canadian natural gas producers called Rockies LNG are partners in the Ksi Lisims project to be developed at Pearse Island, located in northwest B.C.
Ksi Lisims is expected to make a final investment decision later this year on whether to forge ahead with the West Coast development.
Gitanyow Nation hereditary chiefs and several Gitxsan Nation leaders have opposed the controversial pipeline route, which would cross their traditional territories.
Representatives of Luutkudziiwus, a house group within the Gitxsan, are also seeking to have the judge overturn Mr. MacLennan’s ruling. About 35 kilometres of PRGT’s route cross land that falls under the boundaries of Luutkudziiwus.
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Canada’s fledgling LNG industry views PRGT and Ksi Lisims as crucial tests for whether the country will be able to become a major exporter of natural gas in liquid form.
LNG Canada, this country’s first export terminal for the fuel, began shipping last June from Kitimat, B.C., to Asia.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last September that LNG Canada’s Phase 2 expansion plan made the list of major projects of national interest to be considered for fast-tracking by the federal government’s Major Projects Office.
In November, Mr. Carney said Ottawa has added Ksi Lisims to the growing roster of plans submitted to the Major Projects Office.
The PRGT route was originally intended to extend nearly 900 kilometres from northeast B.C. to Lelu Island near Prince Rupert, and supply natural gas to Pacific NorthWest LNG.
Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas cancelled the Pacific NorthWest joint venture in 2017.