ICBA continues to support projects to #Get2Yes and #Stick2Yes by filing an application to intervene in the Squamish Nation’s B.C. Supreme Court case against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
The issue being raised by Squamish Nation is that the Province relied on the federal government’s assessment of Trans Mountain’s proposal and its consultation and negotiations with Indigenous communities impacted by the project. In the opinion of Squamish Nation, the Province cannot cede its obligations in this regard to the federal government. The Province took this position given the federal government’s responsibility for reviewing and approving interprovincial pipelines. In recent years, Ottawa and Victoria agreed that in such cases, having one environmental review and consultation process was simpler and more efficient for all parties: proponents, Indigenous communities and other stakeholders.
ICBA is not challenging the constitutional obligations that the federal or provincial governments have vis-à-vis Indigenous communities and ICBA recognizes that in some cases, the obligations of the Crown to Indigenous communities may in fact prevent some projects from moving forward. ICBA is simply asserting that project reviews and consultations take place in a timely manner so that infrastructure and resource development projects can be approved in a fashion that allows Canada and BC to get projects built and its resources to market efficiently. ICBA’s concern is that duplicative and overlapping reviews will result in confusion and conflicting proceedings that could paralyze major projects and cost our economy jobs and investment. In this case, since the federal government has jurisdiction over the Trans Mountain pipeline project, we believe it is appropriate that the federal government lead the review and consultation process.
The Application was filed by our attorney, Peter Gall, Q.C. and we are being joined in the application by the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA), the Canadian Iron, Steel and Industrial Workers’ Union (CISIWU), and the Canada West Construction Union (CWCU). Click HERE to read ICBA’s application to intervene.
If there were direct personal financial impacts on people opposed to pipelines they would find a way to approve them. But as it is now, they use taxpayer’s money to litigate, block, protest, delay, and prevent projects while continuing to get welfare cheques handed to them on a silver platter.