Chris Tollefson

I was delighted to address Nature Canada and BC Nature at your annual general meeting in Sidney, BC on September 25. The Environmental Law Centre legal team is eager to represent your groups at the upcoming Trans Mountain pipeline/tanker hearings of the National Energy Board starting in December 2015. Unfortunately we do have one hand tied behind our back given the NEB’s unprecedented decision to eliminate oral cross-examination from the hearing process. On your behalf, we objected to the NEB’s decision because it compromises the NEB’s ability to properly assess the evidence and reach sound legal conclusions.

The 1,180 Trans Mountain project would increase Edmonton to Vancouver pipeline capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day, and result in oil tankers moving almost daily through the Salish Sea past critical Important Bird Areas such as Boundary Bay.

Some intervenors withdrew from the hearings because of the NEB’s decision to disallow direct oral questions to witnesses. Nature Canada and BC Nature decided to continue with the hearings partly because the hearings represent one of the best ways to stand up for marine birds, marine mammals and other wildlife that could be adversely affected the Trans Mountain oil tankers. So Environmental Law Centre lawyers will be there at the hearings presenting final arguments to the National Energy Board in December summarizing the research of Nature Canada’s scientists on the impacts of an oil tanker spill on the birds and other wildlife of the Salish Sea and criticizing Kinder-Morgan’s environmental impact statement—even though we can’t ask any questions.

It is important to note that under 2012 legislation, the federal Cabinet makes the decision on whether Trans Mountain goes forward, and not the NEB. Nature Canada and BC Nature are much better placed to lobby the federal government to make a nature-friendly decision because they can demonstrate that they did their best to convince the NEB to make nature-friendly recommendations on Trans Mountain. And there is certainly a possibility that any new government elected on October 19 may not be so sympathetic to the notion of increasing the number of oil tankers carrying bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands through difficult-to-navigate waters critical to marine wildlife.

Nature Canada and BC Nature are also much better placed to challenge in court the NEB recommendations or federal decisions on Trans Mountain given that they have been active intervenors at the hearings. The legal foundations for a potential lawsuit are being laid through participation in the hearings.