Northern Gateway pipeline approval stymied after court quashes approval
VANCOUVER — The Canadian government failed in its duty to consult with aboriginal people before giving the green light to a controversial pipeline proposal to link Alberta’s oilsands to British Columbia’s north coast, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled.
The court quashed federal approval for Enbridge’s $7.9-billion Northern Gateway project in a written decision dated June 23 but released Thursday by a law firm involved in the appeal.
The judgment says the government neglected to discuss subjects of critical importance to First Nations by ignoring many of the project’s impacts and offering only a “brief, hurried and inadequate” opportunity for consultation.
“The inadequacies — more than just a handful and more than mere imperfections — left entire subjects of central interest to the affected First Nations, sometimes subjects affecting their subsistence and well-being, entirely ignored. Many impacts of the project … were left undisclosed, undiscussed and unconsidered,” the decision reads.