The decision by the government of British Columbia to approve the Trans Mountain pipeline is “tainted” because of a conflict of interest that saw the premier and her political party receive more than $560,000 from the project’s proponents, a court petition alleges.
Democracy Watch and PIPE UP Network filed legal documents Tuesday asking the B.C. Supreme Court to overturn an environmental assessment certificate granted earlier this year for Kinder Morgan’s $6.8-billion oil pipeline project.
The petition is the latest in a string of legal challenges aimed at blocking construction of the pipeline between the Edmonton area and Burnaby, B.C. The expansion would nearly triple the line’s capacity and increase tanker traffic sevenfold along B.C.’s southern coast.
The petition says based on data from Elections B.C., $560,000 in political donations were made over six years to B.C.’s Liberal party by Kinder Morgan and various oil shippers interested in using the pipeline.
The pipeline approval is “tainted by money,” the petition says.
“A reasonable, informed and thoughtful person, after thinking about it for a while, would think that the premier and the ministers would have at least been unconsciously affected by more than $560,000 in payments to the Liberal Party of British Columbia,” it says.
These allegations are now before the court.