(OTTAWA) June 30, 2016 – Today’s Federal Court of Appeal decision to overturn approval of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project is a win for First Nations rights in Canada.
“Today’s decision reinforces Canada’s duty to consult First Nations, something the previous Conservative government clearly failed to do following the National Energy Board’s conditional approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline project,” said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
“To quote the decision itself, the court concluded ‘that Canada offered only a brief, hurried and inadequate opportunity in Phase IV – a critical part of Canada’s consultation framework – to exchange and discuss information and to dialogue. The inadequacies ... left entire subjects of central interest to the affected First Nations, sometimes subjects affecting their subsistence and well-being, entirely ignored.’
“This decision proves what First Nations have been saying all along: that the federal government hasn’t been listening to them. Instead, the previous government was hell-bent on rushing through approvals without considering their duty to consult,” Ms. May said.
“This is also the first pipeline to be approved under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (2012), brought in under omnibus bill C-38. We risk the same inadequacies with the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline review. With today’s decision, the result of these flawed pipeline consultations now speak for themselves,” Ms. May concluded.
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For additional information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Dan Palmer
Press Secretary | Attaché de presse
dan.palmer@greenparty.ca
m: (613) 614-4916