A B.C. Supreme Court ruling has dismissed a legal challenge aimed at halting early construction on the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline due to the absence of an updated cumulative effects assessment.
The case was brought by the Kispiox Band, the Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association, and the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. These groups argued that the B.C. Energy Regulator failed to meet its own permit conditions, allowing construction to begin without a comprehensive evaluation of how the 900-kilometre pipeline’s impacts would combine with other industrial development across the region.
However, the Court ruled the groups lacked legal standing because the current construction section lies outside their immediate area.
The decision has raised concerns among community members and environmental advocates. Ecojustice lawyer Matt Hulse criticized the ruling, stating that the whole point of cumulative effects assessments is to understand how impacts add up—not to treat each pipeline section in isolation.
The groups say the regulator relied on outdated assessments from 2014 and failed to account for changes in the environment and local communities. They now have 30 days to consider filing an appeal.
The pipeline would cross the Skeena River and pass within 15 km of Kispiox Village.
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