Environmentalists claim ‘setback’ for species protection in B.C. port expansion case

A Federal Court judge has thrown out a legal challenge by environmental groups that claimed allowing the expansion of a massive container facility on British Columbia’s waterfront would threaten the survival of southern resident killer whales and salmon.

The David Suzuki Foundation, the Georgia Strait Alliance, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee filed a legal challenge last June against the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project in Delta, B.C.

They say the federal government’s approval of the project wasn’t in step with the Species at Risk Act because it will “destroy” a large swath of Chinook salmon habitat, which the endangered killer whales rely on for food.

The Federal Court dismissed the group’s judicial review on Friday, ruling that the decisions by the federal environment minister and the cabinet to allow the project to proceed were reasonable.

The environmental groups say the port expansion will “jeopardize the whales’ survival and recovery and destroy their critical habitat,” and that approving the project skirted requirements to protect at-risk species.

The federal government argued in court that the conservation groups “fundamentally” misconstrued how the project will be regulated because the decisions did not “shortcut future federal and provincial authorizations” needed for the expansion to happen, including those necessary under at-risk species protection legislation.

In a statement to The Leader Spirit, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says the decision reaffirms the “rigor of the federal environmental assessment process” that Roberts Bank Terminal 2 went through.

“Roberts Bank Terminal 2 is vital to support Canadian trade and our shared prosperity. We are advancing the project in an environmentally responsible way that reflects First Nations’ priorities and supports Canada’s future trade needs,” the port authority said.

—With files from Cecilia Hua