Year in Review: Pipeline case goes to court

A long-simmering dispute between the builders of a natural gas pipeline and those who oppose it came to a head in 2019.

While most of the First Nations along the Coastal GasLink pipeline have been in favour of the project, there remained one group of holdouts and for years they had been operating a checkpoint near a bridge crossing the Morice River south of Houston.

On a cold day in January, RCMP were called in to enforce a temporary court-ordered injunction against the blockade and arrested nine people. If you hadn't heard of the Unist'ot'en before that day, you probably had afterwards as the event vaulted the name to national prominence.

It is a house within the Wetsuwet'en form of traditional governance and while the First Nation's five elected band councils are in favour of the project, most of the First Nation's hereditary chiefs support the Unist'ot'en, who are against letting the pipeline run through their territory.

Moreover, the hereditary chiefs also claim that the band councils' authority ends at the edges of their respective reserves while they have authority over the rest of the Wetsuwet'en traditional territory.

The stakes are high. Coastal GasLink is a $6.6-billion project that is to deliver natural gas from the B.C. Peace to the $40-billion LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, 670 kilometres away.

Benefit agreements have been reached with 20 First Nations along the route, including the five Wet'suwet'en elected bands, adding up to $338 million over 25 years. And contracts on the project adding up to $620 million have been awarded to First Nations and a further $400 million to other companies.

In June, lawyers for Coastal GasLink's owner, TC Energy, argued for extending the injunction to the end of 2021. They called rerouting that particular section of the project an impossibility because it's the best path through the project's most difficult section.

And while a decision on that application remains pending, the company won a dispute on another front. In July, the National Energy Board said it will not be putting the project to a review, rejecting a submission from Smithers-based environmentalist Mike Sawyer that it is part of an interprovincial system.

TC Energy appears confident the court will side with extending the injunction. In December, deliveries of pipeline were made, starting with the Chetwynd and Kitimat areas.

However, as of November, none of the route south of Houston had been cleared.