B.C. First Nations file court challenge against the proposed Pacific Link pipeline

Several B.C. First Nations are asking the Federal Court of Canada to force Ottawa to consult them about potential effects of the proposed Pacific Link pipeline on their land, water and cultural activities.

The St’át’imc Chiefs Council, which represents nine applicants, each with its own similar but unique request for a judicial review of the pipeline announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Oct. 1, told a press conference Monday it wants a say on whether the pipeline should be built and not just how.

The nine B.C. applicants include First Nations along the proposed pipeline and tanker shipping routes and others that argue their fishing rights and livelihood rely on Fraser River salmon. Among them are the Cheam First Nation, Boston Bar First Nation, Lower Nicola Indian Band, Kwantlen First Nation and Tsartlip First Nation.

Chiefs from several of the First Nations challenging the pipeline told a news conference on Monday they were not consulted before Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made a joint announcement about the mega project.

The “pre-approved” project does not meet the standard of “free, prior and informed consent,” Terry Teegee, regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, said in Richmond on Monday.

He said if the pipeline is allowed to go ahead without adequate consultation, it will set a precedent for projects under Ottawa’s new Building Canada Act and “other First Nations should all be concerned.”

Teegee said the plan by Ottawa’s major project office to approve the pipeline within one year “is untenable.”

The proposed 1,200-kilometre pipeline is expected to transport Alberta petroleum products west to Roberts Banks in Delta for eventual export overseas.

Carney designated it as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act, allowing it to be fast-tracked through the regulatory process, as part of his strategy to diversify trade to counteract damage caused to the economy by U.S. tariffs.

But First Nations argue the government’s lack of consultation violates its own laws and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which Canada signed on to five years ago.

Teegee said Carney has to listen to Indigenous peoples’ concerns about how the pipeline would affect them.

“We’re not asking anymore, we’re telling you” to meet with the B.C. Indigenous leaders, he said.

The legal challenges were filed in Federal Court last week, after Cold Lake First Nation in Alberta filed the first one on Oct. 8.

Dominic LeBlanc, minister responsible for internal trade and intergovernmental affairs, is aware of the court challenges but won’t comment, a spokeswoman said in an email.

But she said the government received more than 100 submissions from Indigenous groups and consulted with 110 Indigenous communities along the potential route during consultations over the summer to determine whether the pipeline qualified to be fast tracked under the Building Canada Act.