Gitanyow hereditary chiefs have filed for a judicial review of the Ksi Lisims LNG project, challenging the BC Environmental Assessment Office’s ruling that they need not be consulted on the project.
The $9 billion Ksi Lisims project north of Prince Rupert is being advanced by a joint venture that includes the Nisga’a First Nation, Western LNG and Rockies LNG.
It is currently moving through the BC Environmental Assessment (EAO) process, and the pipeline that would feed it – the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line – also needs amendments to its environmental certificate, owing to a routing change.
The Gitanyow are part of the larger Gitxsan group and have claimed territory in the Nass Valley that overlaps with Nisga’a territory.
In an application filed with the B.C. Supreme Court, Gitanyow heredity chiefs are challenging their exclusion from consultations over the Ksi Lisims project.
They say the BC EAO office ruled that there was no duty to consult them on the Ksi Lisims project, and were not entitled to be a participating nation in an environmental assessment.
According to the judicial review application, the BC EAO determined that “there is no reasonable possibility that Gitanyow or its Section 35 rights will be adversely affected by Ksi Lisims LNG.”
The application notes that the EAO explained the Gitanyow had not been notified of the proposed project “because the EAO had only informed those nations whose territory came within 15 km of the proposed project’s marine footprint. This is despite the fact that the Haida Nation, whose territory is well outside that footprint, was offered participating nation status in the process.”
The Gitanyow are seeking a declaration from the court that the provincial government does have a duty to consult the Gitanyow and that the Gitanyow are entitled to be a participating nation under Section 14 of the B.C. Environmental Assessment Act.
