Understanding the Supreme Court’s Decision to Turn Down the Trans Mountain Pipeline Appeal
Author
Anna Huschka
My name is Anna (she/her), and I am a white settler located on the lands of the Williams Treaty First Nations – the Alderville First Nations, Beausoleil First Nation, Chippewas of Georgina Island, Chippewas of Rama, Curve Lake First Nation, Hiawatha First Nation, and Mississaugas of Scugog Island. I do not intend to speak on behalf of any communities I am not a part of. I hope to leverage my position of privilege as a cisgender white woman to amplify the efforts and voices of those doing so much work towards climate justice in their communities across the country. I want to be a part of challenging the Euro-settler-centric and Western values that currently shape climate policies, to counteract colonial and systemic barriers, ensuring that the concerns, exposures, and knowledges of diverse communities are adequately incorporated into environmental policies and projects. As a part of the Shake Up Your Community project, I hope to help support climate work at all scales and showcase the community-based efforts that have developed out of necessity of addressing the issues of climate justice. As a biology major and politics minor, my passion for environmental politics developed from a sense of urgency and anger about the lack of action by decision-makers to adequately address the climate crisis. I aim to hold decision-makers accountable to climate commitments as well as diversify what is currently Canada’s political climate by identifying gaps in policies and projects by responding to calls for public feedback. Through the Righting History Project, particularly Practicing Rest, Recovery, Resistance: An Interactive Dreaming Journal, I hope to help youth see that their existence, and any contributions they make to the climate movement as a whole, regardless the scale, are beautiful acts of resistance to our colonial, capitalistic society.
In order to properly understand the context of an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, we need to go back to May 2019 when a limit on heavy oil flow was proposed by the provincial government of British Columbia (1). The British Columbia Court of Appeal unanimously decided that this proposal crossed over into the federal jurisdiction, since the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion transverses multiple provinces (1). The proposal would have been problematic if passed, as interprovincial projects are a sole power dictated to the Federal Government in section 92 of the Constitution (2). Secondly, passing of the proposal would have resulted in difficulty for the National Energy Board to work on current and future projects, also contributing to why this request was denied (1). If you’re interested in reading more about the distribution of powers of each level of government, you can click here to read a report from the British Columbia Court of Appeal.
The plan for the $7.4 billion Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion will increase the barrels of oil moved per day from 300,000 to approximately 890,000 (4). There has been a polarized reaction amongst the provinces to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion. Following the Supreme Court’s refusal to try the case, B.C. Premier John Horgan vowed to use his provincial power to protect any ecosystems or communities that would be at risk due to completion and use of the pipeline (2). Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney, was very pleased with the decision made by the Supreme Court, declaring it as a success for Alberta, as the project is supposed to help reduce oil prices, as well as grant access to Alberta oil for international markets (2). This move is expected to increase oil revenue by $3.7 billion per year (4).
In terms of the completion of the pipeline, since the project has already undergone assessments by both the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, and has twice been approved by the Federal Government, it is expected for the project to move forward and construction to begin (2).
