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VICTORIA — The New Democrats maintained Monday that Ottawa’s scaling down of its share of the legal battle over Site C was not a surprise payback for B.C.’s legalistic foot-dragging on the Trans Mountain pipeline.

“They did let us know,” Energy Minister Michelle Mungall told reporters when asked about the federal decision not to contest a First Nation’s application for an injunction to halt construction of the giant hydroelectric dam on the Peace River.

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The federal decision, filed quietly in B.C. Supreme Court last week, raised suspicions that Ottawa was playing tit for tat on the Trans Mountain expansion, which it supports and the B.C. government opposes.

Two days before Ottawa filed its notice on Site C, the province was in the B.C. Court of Appeal seeking approval to regulate increased movement of Alberta bitumen via pipeline and or rail.

But Mungall denied the federal government was leaving the province to fend for itself on Site C. The federal government remains committed to defending its approval of Site C in the broader court proceeding where the West Moberly First Nation claims the project violates its treaty rights.