The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal by the City of Burnaby to block construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal by the City of Burnaby to block construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

The National Energy Board approved the construction, but the City appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal, where it was first denied.

Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson says it's good news.

"But when you think about it, if people looked under the covers here, all there really was was the opportunity to bypass local bylaws during the construction phase only. So there's no real interruption to people's lifestyles or anything. So I'm not really sure what their court process was. But thankfully the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled with some common sense to say, that's enough. Let's get this thing going."

The ruling will allow the pipeline construction to bypass local laws during construction.

However, Anderson isn't holding out a lot of hope construction on the much needed pipeline will start anytime soon.

He says since the Federal Government bought the pipeline from Kinder Morgan back in May, they've been dragging their feet on construction.

In Nanaimo for caucus meetings, Liberal Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi told reporters there's been a delay in the construction already underway, but wouldn't say what the delay was, or how long it'll last.

Anderson suspects it's just the Liberals playing games, as they will continue to delay the project until after the next Federal Election, which is slated for the fall of 2019.

Anderson says he can't imagine them trying to accelerate the program, instead saying "they'll attempt to leverage it, for their federal election run."

Basically, the Liberals hold many seats in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island, and going ahead and starting to build the pipeline now, in the face of protestors in those ridings, could cost them seats, which Alberta opposition politicians say adds up to no new construction activity until after the next election.

 

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