Skip to main content

Good morning! It’s James Keller in Calgary.

The Federal Court of Appeal has handed a major victory to the federal government and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, after concluding that Ottawa’s second round of consultations with Indigenous communities was adequate.

The court ruling removes a major obstacle for the expansion, which will triple the capacity of the pipeline that runs from the Edmonton area to Burnaby, B.C., after an earlier ruling derailed the project in 2018. And it could also have a significant impact on future resource development, with a ruling that makes it clear that while First Nations should be consulted and have their concerns addressed, they do not hold a veto over such projects.

Opponents immediately condemned the ruling and the plaintiffs in the case said they are considering whether to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The ruling stretches back to an earlier case at the Federal Court of Appeal, when a long list of First Nations, environmentalists and local governments challenge the federal government’s original approval for the expanded pipeline, which was then owned by U.S.-based Kinder Morgan. (It’s now owned by the federal government.)

Back then, the court ruled against the government, concluding that Ottawa failed to properly consult with First Nations, and that the original approval did not take into account the potential impact on southern resident killer whales.

That prompted the government to appoint a former Supreme Court judge to oversee a new round of consultations with Indigenous communities and hold new hearings about marine life.

When the federal government approved the project for the second time last year, most of the same groups appealed again. The court rejected the environmentalists' claims but allowed several First Nations to proceed with a challenge.

In the end, the court concluded that the second round of consultations were adequate and that the federal government took steps to address the outstanding concerns. Given that, the court ruled that the decision to reapprove the project was reasonable.

The unanimous judgment also says that First Nations do not hold a veto on projects, a principle the ruling says is a well established legal principle: “The fact that consultation has not led the four applicants to agree that the project should go ahead does not mean that reconciliation has not been advanced. The goal is to reach an overall agreement, but that will not always be possible.”

Construction is already under way in Alberta and is expected to move across the provincial boundary into B.C. in the coming months. The ruling means that work will continue at least until the Supreme Court of Canada is asked to weigh in.

It also could relieve tensions in Alberta that have been exacerbated by last fall’s federal election and a persistent feeling that the Trans Mountain pipeline and other projects won’t happen in the current political environment. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney struck a cautiously optimistic tone, saying the ruling was a significant milestone but that he won’t be celebrating until the project is completely finished.

Kelly Cryderman says the decision is a bright spot in a province that has been suffering for years in an economic downturn: “Even the most hardened of doubters, a cohort in Alberta who believe the expansion will never actually go ahead, have to acknowledge that Tuesday’s decision is progress for the project. It could also be the beginning of some slightly better economic news for the province where unemployment is higher than the national average, real estate values keep inching down and office towers sit empty."

Campbell Clark argues that the ruling will change the dynamic between Ottawa and Alberta – if only temporarily, with other projects such as Teck’s Frontier oil sands project looming: “Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals will expect Alberta’s government to take a political step in return, as they argue they have delivered a big win for the province’s key industry. It won’t win Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals a lot of seats, but it will get the weight of owning a stalled pipeline off their backs.”

You can read the decision on the court’s website.

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here. This is a new project and we’ll be experimenting as we go, so let us know what you think.

Around the West

CORONAVIRUS: British Columbia has identified its second “presumptive-confirmed" case of the novel coronavirus. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said Tuesday that a woman in her 50s developed symptoms several days ago after receiving visitors from Wuhan.

CONSUMPTION SITES AND CRIME: Calgary police released data to show that incidents of violence, break-and-enters and vehicle crimes increased at a slower rate in the immediate vicinity of the city’s only supervised drug consumption site than in the rest of the downtown core. These statistics were released as the provincial government decides whether or not it will close any of Alberta’s sites, including the Calgary one.

HEALTH-CARE REPORT: Alberta’s health minister says he is open to almost all of the recommendations in a review of the Alberta Health Service, which claims it could save the province $2-billion annually by reducing benefits for nurses, cutting the pay of some doctors, and outsourcing more health and support services to the private section. Sandra Azocar, the executive director of Friends of Medicare, said the report’s call for privatization would turn patients and seniors into commodities.

SENIORS REPORT: The operators of for-profit senior care homes spend less on their residents than non-profit homes and failed to deliver on the services they were being paid to offer, B.C.’s seniors advocate has found. Isobel Mackenzie’s latest report, titled A Billion Reason to Care and released Tuesday morning, provides the first in-depth look at how the province’s $1.4 billion-dollar contracted long-term care sector is spending the public money it receives. The report finds the significant differences on expenditures between for-profit care homes and their not-for-profit counterparts.

NETFLIX IN B.C.: A senior executive with streaming giant Netflix, poised to spend billions of dollars globally this year on production, said the company is open to compelling ideas from British Columbia. Although Netflix has been busy with millions of dollars of production in B.C., there are no continuing series set in B.C. playing itself - a reality of largely Hollywood production that added up to $3.2-billion in spending last year.

ECONOMY WORRIES: B.C.’s natural resource sector began softening in the second half of 2019, with forestry and logging jobs shrinking by 10 per cent and employment in mining and oil and gas dropping by more than 7 per cent. The B.C. business community and economists are watching for the Feb. 18 budget.

OFFICER KILLED: Abbotsford Police Const. John Davidson was remembered on Monday by his distraught family at a sentencing hearing where Oscar Arfmann learned he will serve life in prison for first-degree murder.

POLICE INTERROGATION: B.C. Mounties say they have to improve the way they investigate allegations of sexual assault after settling a lawsuit brought by a Kelowna-area woman who, when she was a teenager, was asked during police questioning if she enjoyed the sexual assault.

FRONTIER OIL SANDS MINE: Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says he needs more information from Teck Resources Ltd. to decide if the company’s commitment to net-zero emissions will influence Ottawa’s approval of its proposed new oil sands mine. On Monday, Teck announced its commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050 “across all operations and activities.” A decision on the project is expected by the end of this month.

ALBERTA’S HOCKEY TEAMS BATTLE IT OUT: Saturday night proved to be a rueful one for Oilers and Flames fans as the teams squared off against each other at the Scotiabank Saddledome and many punches were thrown. The Globe’s Marty Klinkenberg captured the carnage.

FORT MCKAY: The Fort McKay First Nation has been working with the provincial government and oil industry for 20 years to develop a plan to preserve an area around Moose Lake, 65 kilometres northwest of Fort McMurray, while also allowing responsible oil and forestry development. The finish line for this deal is now in sight.

CALGARY’S COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE WOES: Calgary’s downtown office-vacancy rate has been close to 30 per cent for the past three years, or roughly 15 times higher than Toronto and Vancouver. The Globe’s Rachelle Younglai and Jeff Jones take a look at what has been happening in this market.

CHILD WELFARE: Cowessess First Nation, about 170 kilometres east of Regina, is one of at least eight aboriginal groups in Western Canada and Ontario that have notified Indigenous Services Canada that they intend to handle their own child and family services as allowed under new federal legislation.

MANITOBA EXAM CONTROVERSY: Brandon University says an investigation into what it has called a compromised second-year nursing exam in December has determined the questions were obtained and distributed from a “pirated” version of a textbook publisher’s test bank. The school gave students a chance to repeat the exam, with a penalty applied, and they all retook the exam and passed.

Opinion:

The Globe’s Editorial Board on why the federal government should help fund new transit to UBC: “Last week, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, UBC and the Musqueam Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh (MST) Development Corp. joined forces to lobby Victoria and Ottawa to help build the full UBC SkyTrain “as soon as possible.” Their goal is the right one, and the provincial, federal and municipal governments should find the money to make it happen.”

The Globe’s Editorial Board on Calgary’s supervised consumption site: “The Chumir Centre appears to be an ideal place for supervised drug consumption. It’s centrally located, with other health services in the same building. The Chumir’s supervised drug site prevents addicts from dying from their addictions; it also refers several hundred people a month to options such as addiction treatment. It’s not perfect but it is progress.”

Theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck on The Louder We Get in Calgary: “The musical is more about teen power than it is a coming out story – and the youthful casting (several actors are still in theatre school) conveys this vividly. A stirring act-one finale sees more and more young people fill the stage, singing: “The more they try to silence us / the louder we get.” This tuneful anthem could easily be appropriated by today’s teenage climate-change or gun-control activists.”

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe