The federal government has until Thursday to decide whether to appeal a ruling that quashes approval for the Northern Gateway Pipeline.
In a split decision released June 30, the Federal Court of Appeal quashed approval for Enbridge’s $7.9-billion Northern Gateway project.
The judgment said the government neglected to discuss subjects of critical importance to First Nations by ignoring many of the project’s impacts and offering only a “brief, hurried and inadequate” opportunity for consultation.
The Northern Gateway project would bring 525,000 barrels a day of oilsands crude through a 1,177-kilometre pipeline from northeast of Edmonton to Kitimat, B.C., for shipping to international markets. A parallel line would send 193,000 barrels a day of bitumen-thinning diluent in the opposite direction.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was committed to formalizing a ban on tanker traffic on the north coast, which critics say will kill the project, however recently, Trudeau has been wavering on his position offering to seriously look the Northern Gateway pipeline. The PM has also said he plans on approving one pipeline project for the Country.
The upcoming decision is the first of several decisions on major energy projects that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces in the weeks ahead.
With files from the Canadian Press