First Nation plans oil pipeline legal challenge – Burnaby NewsLeader
May 5, 2014
The North Vancouver-based Tsleil-Waututh First Nation is going to court to attempt to delay and block Kinder Morgan’s proposed twinning of its Trans Mountain oil pipeline.
The band is targeting the National Energy Board’s review of the project, which would would result in a five-fold increase in the number of oil tankers passing through Burrard Inlet.
The aboriginal group will allege in Federal Court that the federal government and NEB both failed to adequately consult them on both the planned environmental assessment and regulatory review of the project.
“We will fight this unilateral and one-sided review process and this project with all legal means,” Tsleil-Waututh spokesman Rueben George said.
The band says its elders will be cross-examined by Kinder Morgan lawyers, but company experts and representatives won’t have to testify under oath.
The NEB would begin hearing aboriginal evidence in hearings starting this August and full oral hearings on the project would start in early 2015.
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