Image: The Canadian Press
Environment Minister George Heyman says B.C. will take its Trans Mountain pipeline reference case to court by April 30.
Heyman says the government will file its legal action over the issue of jurisdiction in the pipeline dispute in B.C.’s Court of Appeal, the highest court available for such an action. At issue is whether the province has the right to restrict diluted bitumen shipments to the coast on environmental grounds.
He says the details of action and the question or questions it will ask the court to determine are still being worked out by the New Democrat government.
Heyman says if B.C. loses in court, the government will continue to exercise its constitutional jurisdiction to protect the province’s environment and economy from the impacts of an oil products spill.
The pipeline project has been the subject of growing friction in recent weeks, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau summoning the premiers of Alberta and B.C. to Ottawa for talks and Alberta introducing legislation designed to restrict fuel shipments to B.C.
Kinder Morgan, the U.S.-based pipeline builder, announced earlier this month that it was pulling back on spending for the $7.4 billion expansion project and gave Trudeau’s government until May 31 to give a clear signal it will proceed.
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