Canadian First Nations Launch Legal Challenges to Planned Pacific Link Oil Pipeline

By Robb M. Stewart

OTTAWA--Opposition to a planned crude oil pipeline to Canada's west coast is growing among indigenous communities who argue they have been left out of consultations in Prime Minister Mark Carney's efforts to fast track the development.

Nine First Nations said Monday they have filed judicial review applications with the Federal Court requesting it overturn the Canadian government's listing of the Pacific Link pipeline as a project of national interest.

The applicants, including communities located along the proposed pipeline and tanker shipping routes--plus communities who rely on Fraser River salmon--argue that Ottawa, among other things, breached its duty to consult them prior to the listing decision.

The planned pipeline in October became the first project to receive a national interest designation since Ottawa last year passed the Building Canada Act in an effort to fast-track developments that promise to strengthen the country's resilience, security and autonomy. The act is part of the Carney government's efforts to position Canada as a superpower in both conventional and clean energy and double exports to non-U.S. markets over a decade.

The St'át'imc, Cheam, Tsartlip and other First Nations said that by listing the project under the Building Canada Act the project is deemed to have met all legal requirements under federal environmental laws such as the Fisheries Act. Chiefs for the nations said that national interest designation legally shifts any future consulation to "how" and not "whether" the project will go ahead, without an impact assessment.

Chief Justin Kane, chair of the St'át'imc Chiefs Council, said the pipeline would cross more than 500 rivers and streams and is expected to double crude oil tanker traffic in the Salish Sea.

The applications from the nine nations call on the court to quash or set aside the national interest listing on the basis it was unlawful, unconstitutional and inconsistent with the United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.

A similar application was filed with the court last month by Cold Lake First Nations that also challenged the designation of the pipeline project. The nation said it had repeatedly asked to be included in consultations on the Pacific Link pipeline and an associated carbon-storage hub that would be development within its traditional territories, but the government has moved ahead without meaningful engagement.

The official listing for the Pacific Link project kickstarted a process to clear the way to get shovels in the ground. The pipeline would allow Canada to export an addition 1 million barrels of oil a day to Asia, which the prime minister has said would materially reduce the country's dependence on the U.S., which currently brings in about 90% of Alberta's oil.

The government projects the Pacific Link would create 140,000 jobs for workers such as engineers, pipefitters and welders. It is expected to generate more than 20 billion Canadian dollars (US$14.3 billion) in gross domestic product a year, and C$100 billion in government revenue by 2060, Carney has said.

The government said its Major Projects Office consulted with more than 130 indigenous communities near or along potential routes in Alberta and British Columbia. Canada and Alberta are expected to share equal ownership of Pacific Link, and Ottawa has said indigenous communities will be offered a minimum 10% stake that will financed through federal and provincial loan guarantee programs.

Project development will be led by Trans Mountain, the state-owned company behind the country's only operating oil pipeline to the west coast, which has a capacity of about 890,000 barrels a day following an expansion that came online in 2024. Pembina Pipeline has agreed to join the construction as a private sector investor.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 02, 2026 15:31 ET (20:31 GMT)