Workers lay pipe during construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion on farmland, in Abbotsford, B.C., on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

By The Canadian Press

B.C. First Nations file legal challenges of federal decision on Pacific Link pipeline

Nov 2, 2026 | 11:08 AM

VANCOUVER — Several First Nations in British Columbia have filed legal challenges to the federal government’s decision to list the proposed Pacific Link oil pipeline between Alberta to B.C.’s coast as a project of national interest, fast-tracking its review.

A statement from Tsartlip First Nation on Vancouver Island says it has filed a Federal Court application for judicial review on the move, saying Ottawa has not “given sufficient information about the project and its potential impacts.”

The St’at’imc Chiefs Council, representing nine nations along the proposed pipeline route in B.C.’s Interior and Fraser Valley, says it has also launched legal action asking the court to overturn the listing as a project of national interest.

The group says in a statement that approving the Pacific Link project without full assessment of risks to salmon and fishing rights, and without deep consultation to ensure the consent of all impacted nations, is unacceptable and unlawful.

The Tsartlip application asks the court to confirm the Canadian government must “meaningfully consult” the nation before deciding if the pipeline is in the national interest.

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The pipeline was the first project to receive the designation under the Building Canada Act during an announcement by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith last month.

The proposal is for a new pipeline that largely follows the path of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline to an export terminal in Metro Vancouver with an estimated cost between $35.2 billion and $42.7 billion.

The designation means the project would be subject to a fast-tracked, streamlined regulatory process conducted by the federal major projects office, a move Tsartlip First Nation spokesman Adam Olsen calls “reckless.”

“The national interest designation concerns a multibillion-dollar publicly funded project that is not expected to be completed until 2032,” Olsen says in the statement. “Yet the consultation and decision-making process happened in less than three months.”

Olsen, who’s a former B.C. Green legislator, says there is concern there may be more projects of national interest affecting First Nations, citing last week’s announcement that the Port of Vancouver’s Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion has also been added to that list.

“How this decision is made will shape every one that follows, for our people, for future generations and for every community, First Nations or otherwise, that could be next,” Olsen says.

B.C. First Nations file legal challenges of federal decision on Pacific Link pipeline

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