Federal Court of Appeal dismisses First Nations’ challenge of B.C.’s Site C dam
VANCOUVER — The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a legal challenged filed by two British Columbia First Nations that argued the $8.8-billion Site C dam project violated their treaty rights.
The Prophet River First Nation and the West Moberly First Nation appealed a Federal Court judge’s decision to deny an application for a judicial review of the federal government’s approval of the project.
A three-member panel issued a unanimous decision Monday to uphold the earlier ruling, which rejected the First Nations’ claims that the environmental review and ensuing government approval should have assessed their treaty rights and determined whether the project infringed on those rights.
“The (environmental assessment) process is an information-gathering process and not a process intended to result in a binding determination of aboriginal or treaty rights,” wrote Judge Richard Boivin on behalf of the panel.