THE Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday rejected the City of Burnaby’s request for leave to appeal that was filed on May 9 in relation to the Federal Court of Appeal decision to deny Burnaby leave to appeal the National Energy Board decision that declared Burnaby’s Preliminary Plan Approval (PPA) and tree bylaws constitutionally inapplicable to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline construction. This allowed Kinder Morgan to cut trees with no consideration for the protections City of Burnaby bylaws are in place to ensure.

“We’re disappointed that the courts seem unwilling to review decisions made by the National Energy Board that hamper municipal jurisdiction,” said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan. “We think the question of whether federal projects such as this should expect immunity from municipal regulation is an important one – and even more important now that the Federal Government has bought this flawed project.
“Burnaby is not going away. We intend to continue to oppose this project with all legal means available to us, and will be continuing with our other legal challenges.”
Pending court challenges include:
1) Federal Court of Appeal – the City of Burnaby is still awaiting decision on the challenge to the original NEB decision argued in November.
2) Federal Court of Appeal – the Judicial Review of the Detailed Route Hearing decision made by a different NEB panel in April 2018 (no hearing date set yet, but written argument is due next week)
3) BC Court of Appeal – Burnaby is a participant in the BC Reference case which will be heard in 2019; evidence being filed in September
4) NEB proceeding – Westridge Line Relocation being heard by the NEB (arguments due in September)
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