The province announced Tuesday that it has entered into confidential talks with BC Hydro and the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations to find alternatives to a lawsuit against the Site C dam.
The two nations filed civil claims in early 2018 alleging the $10.7-billion project infringed their rights under Treaty 8.
"The parties will continue trial preparations as discussions proceed on alternatives to litigation," the province announced in an information bulletin issued on Feb. 26. "The parties appeared in court on Feb. 26, 2019, and proposed a case plan for a 120-day trial commencing in 2022."
The two First Nations went to B.C. Supreme Court last year seeking an injunction halting work on all, or some portions of the project until their claims were heard. The court rejected the request, saying it would throw the project into "disarray." However, it ordered that a trial to determine whether the project infringed their treaty rights be held by mid-2023, before the dam's reservoir is filled.
Site C is the third dam being built on the Peace River, and has been under construction since July 2015.
The First Nations have argued they continue to live with the impacts of the Bennett and Peace Canyon dams upstream of Site C, and that the cumulative impacts of all three would continue to disrupt and displace hunters, trappers, and fishers, and interfere with their way of life by destroying habitat home to plants and animals relied on for spiritual, medicinal, and food purposes.
Courts have previously dismissed lawsuits by First Nations and landowners seeking a judicial review of the dam. However, courts haven't ruled on whether the dam infringes Treaty 8, with one provincial Supreme Court justice noting in a 2015 ruling that the question would need to be answered in a civil trial.
Several project agreements have also been signed with a number of First Nations in the region over the project.
There were 3,100 workers employed in some capacity on Site C at the end of 2018.
Site C was first approved by the BC Liberal government in 2014. NDP Premier John Horgan announced in 2017 that construction would continue after his government inherited the project and launched a four-month economic review.
West Moberly and Prophet River had warned Horgan that his approval to continue would prompt a billion-dollar lawsuit.
