B.C. court hears challenge to Nisga’a-led natural gas pipeline

A court hearing is underway in Vancouver in a battle over a natural gas pipeline in Northern British Columbia.

The 800-kilometre Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline will run from northeastern B.C. to a floating liquified natural gas terminal on Nisga’a land on Pearse Island.

The project is owned by the Nisga’a Nation and Texas-based Western LNG, and would move between 2 billion and 3.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

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But a coalition of community groups and the Kispiox First Nation are challenging the project in court, arguing the B.C. Energy Regulator allowed construction on a small section of the pipeline without first conducting a legally required assessment of the project’s full impact.

“We got tired of them sidestepping and bending the rules that don’t seem to protect the residents, so we are here today to stand up for our communities and we just want to hold them accountable,” said Shannon McPhail, with the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition.

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The pipeline project was first granted its environmental certificate in 2014. Under its conditions, the certificate would have lapsed if significant construction did not begin before 2024.

The energy regulator approved a permit for construction on a small section of the pipeline last year in Nisga’a treaty land, including land clearing, bridge building and the construction of worker accommodations.

But the complainants argue the work was done solely to meet the deadline for a now-out-of-date environmental assessment.

“What was submitted as a cumulative effects assessment was something from the original environmental assessment back in 2014 that didn’t consider any of the new projects, any of the new updated baseline information, of which there is a monumental amount,” McPhail said.

“So they completely negated their own permit conditions.”

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The Nisga’a Nation has said the project is vital to its economic future and will play a major role in reconciliation.

“PRGT is our chance as Indigenous people to develop a pipeline project in our own way, to show how it can and should be done,” Nisga’a Lisims government president Eva Clayton said when the nation bought its stake in the pipeline last year.

“By working together, and with world-leading construction managers, we’re confident this project will set a new bar for environmental protection and leave a legacy of prosperity for Nations across B.C.”

The B.C. Energy Regulator is defending its management of the file in court, with the hearing set to last throughout the week.

The provincial government is expected to make a decision on an amendment to the pipeline’s original environmental assessment certificate this spring.