Sipekne’katik v. Nova Scotia (Environment), 2017 NSSC 23 (CanLII)

January 27, 2017 Ryan Oxner

This case was heard in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia’s Minister of Environment issued an approval of a natural gas storage facility that Alton Natural Gas Storage LP (“Alton Gas”) had proposed to construct. Sipekne’katik First Nation initiated an appeal of the Minister’s decision, arguing that the Crown had breached its duty to consult and had also demonstrated a lack of procedural fairness.

After determining the content of the Minister’s duty to exercise procedural fairness, the Court held that there had been a lack of procedural fairness. The Minister’s decision had been informed by documents that contradicted Sipekne’katik’s position on the issue and were critical of the First Nation’s conduct during the assessment process, and Sipekne’katik had not been given an opportunity to review those documents and respond to them. Given its finding that there had been a lack of procedural fairness, the Court chose not to consider Sipekne’katik’s position on the Crown’s duty to consult. The decision of the Minister was quashed, and the matter was remitted back to the Minister.

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssc/doc/2017/2017nssc23/2017nssc23.html

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