This case was heard in the Federal Court of Canada.

In the late 1990s, New Brunswick’s Minister of Transportation and Minister of Environment approved a trial program that was designed to restore the ecosystem of Lake Petitcodiac. The Lake Petitcodiac Preservation Association ("LPPA") had concerns about the possible effects of the program and also had concerns about the legitimacy of the environmental assessment process that had led to the project’s approval.

LPPA applied to the Federal Court for interim relief, requesting the Court to stop the program from moving forward until the Ministers’ decisions to approve the project had received judicial review. In order to make a successful application for interim relief, LPPA had to prove that irreparable harm would occur if program were allowed to move forward. The Court held that the LPPA had failed to prove that irreparable harm would occur, and it therefore dismissed the Association’s appeal.

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/1998/1998canlii8003/1998canlii8003.html

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