Vancouver seeking judicial review of Trans Mountain pipeline expansion

VANCOUVER – The City of Vancouver is launching another court case in a bid to derail Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline expansion.

Council members have voted to go ahead with a judicial review of the provincial government’s environmental assessment of the Trans Mountain project.

In June, the city filed another court challenge aimed at quashing the National Energy Board’s recommended approval of the $6.8-billion project.

The federal government has already approved the expansion, which would triple the capacity of a pipeline that runs from near Edmonton to Metro Vancouver, and increase tanker traffic in the Burrard Inlet seven-fold.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark said last month that all five of the province’s conditions for approving the project had been met, including First Nations participation and the creation of world-leading oil spill response and prevention plans.

Several other groups, including the Squamish Nation, the Living Oceans Society and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, have filed their own applications for judicial review of the project. (Roundhouse Radio, The Canadian Press)