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Trans Mountain wins bylaw battle

Published by , Senior Editor
World Pipelines,


The City of Burnaby's bylaw battle against the Trans Mountain pipeline has been shut down by a BC Supreme Court judge, who has declared that the National Energy Board rules take precedence over the city's.

Burnaby has tried to hamper preliminary planning in advance of laying the 1100 km pipeline between Alberta and coastal BC through two separate bylaws.

In the ruling, posted on Monday, BC Supreme Court Justice George Macintosh agreed with Trans Mountain, saying the pipeline is situated, constructed and operated under the National Energy Board, which draws its authority from the act.

Justice Macintosh said that the National Energy Board has the constitutional power to direct or limit the enforcement of Burnaby's bylaws.

Macintosh said the energy board can take such action when city bylaws interfere with or block the regulation of the pipeline and expansion project, ruling NEB laws are supreme.

"The provincial law remains valid but becomes inoperative where its application would frustrate the federal undertaking."

"Burnaby appears from the filed evidence to be using the bylaws to make Trans Mountain's preliminary work on the expansion project difficult, if not impossible, to undertake," he added.

The City of Burnaby will be reviewing the decision and considering an appeal.

The city was ordered to pay the company's legal costs.

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: CBCThe Province

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/24112015/trans-mountain-wins-bylaw-battle/

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