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The B.C. Court of Appeal,the province’s highest court, ruled in March 2019 that the province cannot restrict the flow of heavy oil from Alberta across its border.

“At the end of the day, the (National Energy Board) is the body entrusted with regulating the flow of energy resources across Canada to export markets,” Justice Mary Newbury wrote in her decision, which also noted “the (Trans Mountain expansion) project is not only a ‘British Columbia project’.”

“The project affects the country as a whole, and falls to be regulated taking into account the interests of the country as a whole,” she wrote.

The reference case was widely seen as an attempt by B.C. Premier John Horgan’s NDP government to thwart the project.

“The Trans Mountain pipeline project is the only project that would require a hazardous materials permit under the proposed legislation. That is no coincidence,” Maureen Killoran, a partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP acting on behalf of Trans Mountain, said in her argument to the court.

Most arguments centered on the constitutional question of whether B.C. has the legal ability to regulate trade in cases in which it has environmental concerns. But at times the case did veer into broader issues of climate change.

“Environmental protection should be a ‘quasi-constitutional’ principle,” said Harry Wruck, a lawyer with EcoJustice.

“Environmental protection, this court has said, is a fundamental value,” Wruck said.