Federal Court to hear review of ruling on Shell’s Jackpine project in Alberta

VANCOUVER – The federal government’s approval of a proposed oilsands mine expansion is being reviewed in Federal Court tomorrow.

The court is to hear three days of arguments over accusations that Ottawa ignored an Alberta aboriginal bands’s worries about Shell’s Jackpine project.

The project was approved last December despite concerns from a regulatory panel that reviewed it.

That panel said Jackpine would create irreversible environmental damages.

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation says the approval breaks at least three federal statutes.

Crown lawyers say in court documents that the government has fulfilled all its obligations.