Conservation groups launch suit challenging Trudeau cabinet’s pipeline approval
OTTAWA — Conservation groups have filed a new court challenge to the federal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline.
The request for judicial review filed with the Federal Court of Appeal late Monday in Calgary is at least the eighth legal test of the controversial project, which will almost triple the capacity of an existing, 1,150-kilometre pipeline from near Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.
The Liberal government gave the green light to the $6.8-billion pipeline expansion late last month, despite a thicket of existing legal challenges to the regulatory process.
Ecojustice lawyers, on behalf of the Living Oceans Society and Raincoast Conservation, say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet broke the law when it relied on a National Energy Board assessment of Kinder Morgan’s controversial pipeline expansion.