rophet River and West Moberly, are seeking to quash environmental permits issued by the B.C. government for the Site C dam.
Site C requires a number of permits under a variety of provincial and federal legislation before it can begin certain stages of construction.
According to the petition brought forward by the First Nations, there are at least 36 permits to do things such as cut down trees in certain areas, collect fish, destroy beaver dams, remove bald eagle nests, and more.
The petitioners say that in November 2012, BC Hydro told the two First Nations that it intended to apply for the permits before the environmental assessment process was over.
They supposedly referred to this as "synchronized permitting."
The First Nations did not go for this because it would divide their resources and they felt it would be premature to do so. BC Hydro and the provincial government agreed to postpone consultation until later.
In the spring of 2015, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and the First Nations agreed to negotiate a custom consultation process on these permits.
Last April, they signed an agreement to guide the negotiation of the custom consultation process.
That custom consultation process agreement was not finalized, the petition to the court states.
On May 29, Treaty 8 was informed that the B.C. government wanted to conclude consultation on these higher-priority permits by June 5.
This raised concerns for the First Nations, since it would conclude consultation before the First Nations had concluded their independent technical review.
In the document, they state that completing an independent technical review as required by the negotiation agreement "would take at least three months and as long as a year."
On July 7, the B.C. government told the two First Nations that they had approved certain permits.
The petitions argue that by issuing these permits before completing a consultation process set out in the negotiation agreement, there was not enough time for the First Nation to prepare a complete response regarding the potential adverse effects of the permits on treaty rights to hunt and fish.
In addition to quashing the permits, the two bands are seeking an injunction from performing any work pursuant to the permits until the petition is heard and decided by the court.
Two of these permits include an occupant licence to cut along the north bank of the Peace River for the dam. Work for that was recently awarded to Morgan Construction, an Alberta-based company.
On July 31, Dave Conway, a BC Hydro spokesman, wrote that "some initial clearing activities on the north bank are underway."
Calls to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations were not returned as of press time.
BC Hydro declined comment.
The petition gives Hydro and the Ministry 21 days to respond.
Calls to West Moberly First Nation Chief Roland Willson and his law firm asking for comment were not returned as of press time.
This is a second legal challenge brought forward by these two First Nations against the province.
The first was against the environmental assessment certificate for the dam, which allowed overall construction to begin.
