{"id":266531,"date":"2018-09-10T10:31:48","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T14:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/getting-trans-mountain-expansion-back-on-track\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T22:13:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:13:47","slug":"getting-trans-mountain-expansion-back-on-track","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/09\/getting-trans-mountain-expansion-back-on-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Trans Mountain expansion back on track"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s recent decision<\/a> to overturn approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was a political thunderbolt that instantly derailed progress on one of his government\u2019s most critical files. Luckily for the purveyor of sunny ways, the storm clouds came with a silver lining: a careful reading of the decision also offers some guidance on how his government can get Trans Mountain back on track.<\/p>\n

There have been no shortage of twists and turns on the pipeline front for Trudeau. Having directly<\/a> or indirectly<\/a> killed off alternative pipeline proposals and under immense pressure to get one built, he proceeded to buy a way out<\/a> of the problem, and in so doing shifted the project\u2019s risks from Kinder Morgan shareholders<\/a> onto the backs of Canadian taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Mere hours after the release of the court decision on August 30, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley delivered a bombshell: Alberta was pulling out<\/a> of the federal climate change plan (while, curiously, leaving its existing carbon tax in place), and she demanded that, among other things, the federal government immediately seek to appeal to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to blame Notley, who will be fighting for her political life next spring, for taking a throw-everything-and-see-what-sticks approach. But the reality is that a Supreme Court appeal not only will take a long time \u2014 a year would be highly optimistic \u2014 but faces uncertain odds of success.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s noteworthy that the court ultimately rejected every attack made on the approval process save two. But on those two issues, it essentially concluded that both the Governor in Council (for practical purposes, the Prime Minister and his cabinet) and the National Energy Board (NEB) just didn\u2019t do their jobs properly.<\/p>\n

The good news for the Trudeau government, which has spent considerable political capital and billions of taxpayer dollars on this lemon of a project, is that the court has provided some pretty useful guidance on how it can now make some lemonade.<\/p>\n

The appeal court identified two critical flaws in the approval process: the NEB\u2019s failure to consider the environmental impact of increased project-related shipping, and the government\u2019s insufficiently robust consultation with Indigenous stakeholders.<\/p>\n

On the first point, the concern of the court is quite narrow. The NEB actually did <\/em>consider the impact of project-related shipping; but it did so in compliance with only one piece of legislation (the National Energy Board Act<\/em><\/a>) and not with another law (the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012<\/em><\/a>).<\/em> The NEB concluded, among other things, that the increased level of shipping would result in \u201csignificant, adverse effects\u201d upon the killer whale population.<\/p>\n

But the NEB\u2019s decision to exclude project-related shipping from the scope of the official definition of \u201cproject\u201d as set out in section 2(1) of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act<\/em> meant it avoided triggering obligations under a third piece of legislation: section 79 of the Species at Risk Act<\/em><\/a>. If the NEB had taken the Species at Risk Act<\/em> into account, it would have been required to ensure that cabinet was aware of its obligations to avoid or lessen the negative effects on killer whales. In effect, the court found that even though the NEB had properly identified the risk to whales, because it had failed to follow the Species at Risk Act<\/em>, its report was flawed and cabinet couldn\u2019t rely on it to make a valid decision.<\/p>\n

The remedy, the court said, is to have cabinet send the report back to the NEB and ask it to include project-related shipping in a revised assessment of the project\u2019s environmental impact. This wouldn\u2019t require a complete do-over, and the court observes that cabinet \u201cmay specify a time limit\u201d for the NEB to reconsider. So far, so good.<\/p>\n

The second issue identified by the court, insufficient consultation with Indigenous groups, is trickier. The court found that the government\u2019s duty to consult was not fulfilled by what it had done so far (which the court described as simply taking \u201cmeeting notes\u201d) but also that the process it now requires \u201cdoes not give Indigenous groups a veto\u201d over the project. Where, then, is the middle ground to be found?<\/p>\n

Once again, the court provides guidance, stating that the Phase III consultation \u2014 direct dialogue between the government and Indigenous groups about the latter\u2019s concerns \u2014 must be redone, and that only after this is completed and \u201cany accommodation made\u201d can cabinet then reconsider the project. These statement suggests that the court expects evidence of accommodation of Indigenous concerns to be made before<\/em> cabinet makes a final decision \u2014 a distinct departure from the previous process of officials simply reporting and recommending to cabinet.<\/p>\n

Encouragingly, the court is clear that remedying the flaws doesn\u2019t have to be a lengthy process, going so far as to say that Canada can make the corrected process \u201cbrief and efficient, while ensuring it is meaningful.\u201d How brief? The original Phase III consultation for Trans Mountain in 2016 was 10 months long, and, with much of the information and dialogue exchanged in that process still germane today, discussions on potential accommodations could theoretically begin from a more advanced position.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the same appeal court\u2019s 2016 Gitxaala<\/em><\/a> decision, which overturned approval of the Northern Gateway project on similar grounds, provides some guidance on a timeline; in that case, extending consultations by \u201cin the neighbourhood of four months\u201d might suffice. This suggests that the court is contemplating a revised process that is measured in months rather than years.<\/p>\n

This is good news for Trudeau, who is facing an election in just over a year. In spite of the lengths (and taxpayer expense) his government has gone to in order to keep the Trans Mountain expansion project alive, many Canadians still harbour doubts about how serious it is about getting Trans Mountain built. Armed with direction from the Federal Court of Appeal itself, the Trudeau government can prove its skeptics wrong by moving swiftly to repair the identified defects in the project approval process and get shovels back in the ground.<\/p>\n

Photo: A tug boat passes by Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain marine terminal, in Burnaby, British Columbia, on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. The Canadian Press, by Jonathan Hayward.<\/span><\/p>\n

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For Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s recent decision to overturn approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was a political thunderbolt that instantly derailed progress on one of his government\u2019s most critical files. Luckily for the purveyor of sunny ways, the storm clouds came with a silver lining: a careful reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":274494,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T02:13:49Z","apple_news_api_id":"3cc04711-13c4-401e-a67b-0b555fe236fd","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T02:13:49Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/APMBHERPEQB6mewtVX-I2_Q","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9380,9361,9372],"tags":[8653],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4371,4327,4261],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[],"class_list":["post-266531","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autochtones","category-environnement","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-fossil-fuels-fr","irpp-category-autochtones","irpp-category-energie","irpp-category-environnement"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nGetting Trans Mountain expansion back on track<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/09\/getting-trans-mountain-expansion-back-on-track\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting Trans Mountain expansion back on track\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s recent decision to overturn approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was a political thunderbolt that instantly derailed progress on one of his government\u2019s most critical files. 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