Federal Court of Appeal ruling deals setback for Pacific NorthWest LNG project
VANCOUVER — The National Energy Board must reconsider whether a proposed natural gas pipeline critical to the development of the Pacific NorthWest liquefied natural gas project falls within provincial or federal jurisdiction, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled.
The judgment marks a setback for the $36-billion LNG development, which secured conditional approval from the federal government last year.
“The board did not ask itself whether an arguable case for federal jurisdiction had been made out,” wrote Justice Donald J. Rennie in his decision Wednesday in response to a proceeding launched by Michael Sawyer, who received funding support from the SkeenaWild Conservation Trust.
Sawyer argued the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project, a roughly 900-kilometre pipeline from Hudson’s Hope, B.C., to a natural gas terminal on the province’s Lelu Island, required federal and not provincial approvals.