. Sierra Club Canada Foundation v. Canada (Environment and Climate Change)
In Sierra Club Canada Foundation v. Canada (Environment and Climate Change) (Fed CA, 2026) the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal, this brought against the earlier dismissal of a JR respecting a project "to tap oil and gas reserves far under the ocean floor and transport them to market".
Here the court considers the territorial jurisdiction of federal environmental assessments:
[29] Second, the Federal Court noted that there are issues of territorial jurisdiction: Parliament has no authority over the waters in issue here, which, to reiterate, are 500 kilometers from the Canadian shore. In particular, the Federal Court held that (at para. 80) "“[t]he Project is located 500 kilometers from the coast of Canada, well beyond the legislative authority of Parliament, and there is uncertainty about the destination of the oil from the Project site”" and so "“it [is] impossible to assess marine shipping”". These findings are correct and unassailable.
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