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A hereditary chief and several environmental groups argue province was wrong to extend old approval for long-delayed pipeline
A Gitxsan hereditary chief and environmental groups are challenging a 2025 B.C. decision that kept a long-delayed 750-kilometre natural gas pipeline alive.
After a five-year extension to an environmental approval certificate was granted in 2019, the northern B.C. pipeline had to be “substantially started” — meaning moving beyond planning into actual development, such as land clearing — by November 2024. The province announced in June 2025 the pipeline had met that threshold.
If the Nisga’a Nation-backed $12-billion pipeline project had lost its environmental certificate, it would have had to undertake a completely new environmental review.
That would have been a major obstacle for the $10-billion Ksi Lisims LNG project, a floating liquefied natural gas facility the pipeline is to supply. The proposed LNG project located in a remote area north of Prince Rupert will super cool gas delivered from northeastern B.C. for transport on ships to Asian markets. It was added to Canada’s major projects fast-track list last November.
Two weeks have been set aside for hearings in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, which started Monday, for the challenges to the “substantially started” status. Separate Gitxsan and environmental group challenges are being heard at the same time.
Charlie Wright says he filed the challenge as hereditary chief of the Luutkudziiwus, one of the Gitxsan’s dozens of wilps, or house groups, which oversee specific clan territories. Gitxsan hereditary chiefs representing other wilps have supported the project and signed benefit agreements.
Wright says the pipeline would cross more than 34 kilometres of Luutkudziiwus territory, including untouched wilderness and areas community members use for culture, identity and livelihood.
“The province’s decision will compromise our rights, title and the use of our lands — and we’re prepared to take this issue to the Supreme Court of Canada,” Wright said in a statement Monday.
The decision that the pipeline was substantially started is also being challenged by the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition and the Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association.
In responses filed in court, the province, the Nisga’a and the pipeline company reject the argument the project was not substantially started and that the Luutkudziiwus wilp was not properly consulted.
In his petition, Wright said he had been expressing concerns over the impacts of the project since its inception and that a benefits agreement signed on behalf of the Luutkudziiwus was improper because it was signed by Gordon Sebastian, who also says he is the hereditary chief of the Luutkudziiwus.
In its response to Wright’s petition, the B.C. Ministry of Environment said the determination the project had been substantially started had been done properly and there had been adequate consultation with the Luutkudziiwus.
The Environment Ministry said it is not necessary for the courts to weigh in on the leadership dispute between Wright and Sebastian to determine there was adequate consultation.
The Nisga’a are partnered with Texas-based Western LNG on both the natural gas pipeline and the LNG project.
Originally, the pipeline was to terminate near Prince Rupert for a different liquefied natural gas export project that was cancelled. As a result, the pipeline route has been shortened and altered to deliver natural gas on Nisga’a land.
TotalEnergies of France signed a 20-year deal recently to buy liquefied natural gas from Ksi Lisims LNG, but there has yet to be a final investment decision to go ahead with the megaproject. Western LNG says that is not expected until this fall.
Other First Nations along the pipeline route have also signed benefits agreements, including in northeastern B.C.
But recently some First Nations have signalled their opposition to the liquefied natural gas facility. The Lax Kw’alaams and the Metlakatla First Nations filed separate judicial reviews in the Federal Court of Canada in an effort to quash the project.
Recently, the B.C. government announced the Ksi Lisims LNG project would be a major customer of a new $6-billion B.C. Hydro transmission line. The province is promising to deliver electricity equivalent to half the output of B.C. Hydro’s Site C dam to the proposed LNG project by 2030.
The transmission line project is also on Canada’s fast-track project list, created to accelerate economic growth and lessen dependence on the U.S. after it imposed trade tariffs in spring 2025.
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