That’s because a federal appeal judge rejected the city’s application to hear its argument.
“It’s a procedural hurdle, but sooner or later a court has to deal with this issue,” said the City of Burnaby’s lawyer, Gregory McDade, Q.C. on Friday.
At the heart of the issue is whether cities like Burnaby should have a bigger say in pipeline development in Canada, said the lawyer.
Long before the 100-plus people were arrested on Burnaby Mountain in the high profile contest of wills last month, the City of Burnaby first opposed the company’s borehole test drilling. The Mayor even forbid the company from pursuing its drilling further.
The company insisted the work was lawful, and in September began chainsawing trees and clearing brush for a drill platform for its survey work on the mountain. In response, Burnaby took the company to provincial court to try to uphold its traffic and park bylaws and stop the company from doing further damage.
The B.C. court ruled the issue should be dealt with in federal court. With Friday's federal court refusal to hear the matter, the city's challenge will now return to the B.C. Supreme Court once again.
But with the company losing millions of dollars per month from delays, in October Kinder Morgan took the matter to the National Energy Board to strike down those city laws. Eventually, the board ruled the bylaws as “inoperative”, so the controversial drill work began.
Burnaby maintains the NEB did not have the legal authority to make that decision.
“We say that a federally appointed [National Energy Board] has no legal power to strike down [city] bylaws. It’s never happened in Canadian history. It’s never happened in Canadian law,” said McDade.
What happened next is history. The survey crews began their incursions into the conservation park in late October, and protesters met them with bull horns, loud exchanges, and what the company said were intimidation tactics.
A further court injunction and civil suit was then slapped on individuals who the company thought were the protest movement’s ringleaders – including two SFU professors. The injunction to forbid protesters from interfering began, and the large crowds came to the mountain daily in opposition.
Fast forward to today – the geotechnical drill work is complete, and company will now go to the NEB in early 2015 to present its case for the approval of the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline.
Despite this, the City of Burnaby’s legal team continues to fight for cities to be able to shape industrial developments.
"Legally, Burnaby may not have the power to stop a pipeline, but they should have a role, and clearly in how, where and whether a pipeline goes through the city," said McDade.
“Events on Burnaby Mountain just show how true that is,” he added.
Kinder Morgan was asked to comment on the federal court’s ruling. We will update this story when they do.
The company has maintained that its desire to build the last leg of its Edmonton-to-Burnaby oil sand pipeline under Burnaby Mountain was to avoid city streets and homes.
Following the end of the two-week injunction that protected the company's drillers on the mountain conservation park -- who performed their work 24/7 -- the company began a major PR push.
Kinder Morgan ads showcase its Canadian President, Ian Anderson, describing his willingness to listen the public. The company also held a "dial-in" town hall, to answer people's questions.
Critics said the company may be too afraid to have an actual in-person town hall, for fear of more clashes over the controversial pipeline project.
Original Article
Source: vancouverobserver.com/
Author: Mychaylo Prystupa
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