Supreme Court of Canada won't hear City of Burnaby's Trans Mountain pipeline appeal

The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear theCity of Burnaby'sappeal fighting the construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

The city was appealing part of a decision from the Federal Court of Appeal, which halted work on the project last August. Construction was suspended after that court found First Nations were not adequately consulted before the project was approved in 2016, and that the National Energy Board (NEB) failed to consider the marine shipping impacts of such a project.

The City of Burnaby supported the federal court's decision, but filed leave to appeal the ruling in October because it wanted additional requirements imposed onthe NEB mandated by the court before the project would be allowed tomove forward.

The Supreme Court of Canada delivered its judgmentdismissing Burnaby's applicationon Thursday morning.

"It's always an uphill battle," Greg McDade, the city's lawyer, said during a phone call after theruling came down. "This was just an effort to keep the options [to stop the project] open."

The pipeline expansion will triple the amount of diluted bitumen and other oil products moving between the Edmonton area and port facilities inBurnaby.

The federal government purchased the pipeline from Kinder Morgan Canada for $4.5 billion last year in order to ensure the expansion would proceed.

The federal government is set to make a final decision on the fate of the pipeline by June 18.