Burnaby/Fraser Valley (With files from CKNW) -UPDATE – A Burnaby City Councillor says the city will appeal, after it lost the latest legal round in the battle over Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline expansion project.
A BC Supreme Court justice ruled that the National Energy Board rules trump the municipal bylaws.
Sav Dhaliwal says they won’t give up the fight.
“We will pursue an appeal of that. This is something that we knew when we got into it, that it may have to go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada and we are determined to do that, because we do have a mandate from the citizens of Burnaby to really stop this.”
Burnaby’s taxpayers are on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in legal costs stemming from the court action.
ORIGINAL STORY – The city of Burnaby now has to pay court costs after its failed legal battle to stop the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
The pipeline is part of the massive project overseen by Kinder Morgan.
In a ruling posted online Monday, BC Supreme Court Justice George Macintosh ruled the city’s bylaws against the expansion were no match for the National Energy Board Act.
The Trans Mountain Expansion Project’s Ali Hounsell said: “Trans Mountain respects the court’s decision that reaffirms earlier rulings upholding the National Energy Board’s jurisdiction as it relates to our proposed expansion project”
The expansion would see a doubling of the pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s coast. That would cut through Hope, Chilliwack and Abbotsford and onto Burnaby.
Burnaby has been ordered to pay Trans Mountain’s court costs.
No one really knows how this will affect the voiced concerns from Chilliwack and Abbotsford over fears to a leak or full blown break and spill, even though the respective council’s have been assured of the company’s safety record.
