Tsleil-Waututh Nation – whose court challenge led to the court tossing the federal review of the Trans Mount pipeline expansion project – filled its written submissions today to the National Energy Board’s reconsideration of the project.
The NEB’s reconsideration follows a Federal Court of Appeal decision in August 2018 that quashed Trans Mountain’s approvals and permits due to inadequate consultation with affected First Nations, as well as the exclusion of marine shipping from the original NEB review.
In September, the federal Cabinet directed the NEB to complete a new marine shipping review within 22 weeks. The NEB's recommendation is expected by Feb. 22.
“Unfortunately, the NEB repeated many of the same errors that landed the government in court last time,” said Rueben George, spokesperson for Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Sacred Trust Initiative, in a statement. “The ridiculously short timeline, the limited scope of the review, and limited testing of evidence made this re-do even worse than the first hearing.”
The Tsleil-Waututh said that in “spite of significant flaws in the NEB process,” its members participated by filing evidence, participating in the Aboriginal oral traditional evidence hearings and engaging in the review.
The Tsleil-Waututh’s final submission is nearly 200 pages long, and says that the “significant adverse effects of the Trans Mountain project cannot be justified in the circumstances.”
Trans Mountain has said in its NEB submission that while the project will have “significant environmental effects,” these are “justified” because the project is of utmost national importance.
But the Tsleil-Waututh said in its submission, according to a news release, that the project is “uneconomic and not needed. Therefore, the NEB should not recommend that the project be approved. Justifying the significant adverse effects on southern resident killer whales will defeat the primary purposes of both the Species at Risk Actand the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012.”
The statement also says that Trans Mountain-related marine shipping will “negatively impact TWN’s rights, including cultural and spiritual practices.”
