Environmental Groups’ Bay du Nord Approval Appeal Rejected by Federal Court

Federal Court has rejected an appeal of the federal government’s authorization for the Bay du Nord offshore oil project.

The lawsuit is supported by the environmental group Ecojustice, a non-profit environmental organization in Quebec called Équiterre, and the Sierra Club Canada Foundation.

Equinor, a Norwegian oil company, and its partners want to drill more than a kilometre below the surface to develop the Flemish Pass oilfield, located about 500 kilometres east of St. John’s.

Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault claimed the project will not have major negative environmental effects due to the implementation of mitigation measures.

The Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc. (MTI), which represents eight Mi’kmaw communities in New Brunswick, has been accused of being left out of the consultation process and of approving the project despite the advise of climate scientists worldwide, according to the group.

“I will say I’m pretty shaken … that the case was necessary. That the federal government would approve a project that’s not in line with our climate commitments, and that was, you know, also threatening marine life,” said Sierra Club’s national programs director, Gretchen Fitzgerald.

“The impacts of this project on our ability to stay within safe climate limits needed to be confronted, and they still will be inside or outside of court.… I’m more convinced than ever that we have to keep fighting the approval of this project down the road.”

Equinor has delayed the project for up to three years due to difficult market circumstances and increasing construction costs.

“Bay du Nord is an important project in Equinor’s portfolio and our current focus is to optimize the development following a recent internal postponement decision,” said Equinor’s head of public affairs in a statement.