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Barely a year after threatening to use every tool it could to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from going ahead, the B.C. NDP government’s toolbox is looking pitifully empty.

The setbacks have been big and embarrassing. The next one could be the ugliest. The province and its anti-pipeline allies are waiting for the result of lawsuits before the Federal Court of Appeal challenging the National Energy Board’s (NEB’s) permit. Arguments were made last fall and a ruling is expected this spring.

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The record is not promising. Since 2014, the courts ruled in Trans Mountain’s favour 14 out of 14 times in cases challenging the regulatory review process or decisions related to the project, according to Kinder Morgan Canada Inc., a proponent of the project to triple the size of the Edmonton to Burnaby pipeline. Yet the string of legal failures hasn’t discouraged pipeline opponents from continuing to threaten more lawsuits. With so many tools having failed, the new strategy seems to be to throw mud on the wall to see if anything sticks.