B.C. going to province's highest court in attempt to fight Trans Mountain pipeline

British Columbia will file a reference case in the provincial Court of Appeal by the end of this month to determine if it has jurisdiction over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

Attorney General David Ebymade the announcement Wednesday morning.

"Our goal from the beginning is to ensure that we are actually exercising the full extent of our jurisdiction, the full extent of our authority," he said.

The federal and Alberta governments support the Trans Mountain project, while B.C. says it's defending its coast from a potentially catastrophic oil products spill.

"This process is about B.C.'s right under the Constitution to regulate against the deleterious impacts on the environment, on the economy, on the provincial interests whether it's an inter-provincial project or a provincial project," B.C. Environment Minister George Heymantold reporters at the B.C. Legislature on Wednesday.

The filing is B.C.'s latest move in the ongoing deadlock between the western province and Alberta over the $7.4-billionproject, whichruns from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.

At the Alberta legislature, Energy MinisterMargaret McCuaig-Boydsaid B.C.'s announcement was expected and won't change the outcome for the pipeline.

"At the end of the day this is a federally approved project and B.C. continues to use their one tool, which is going to court, apparently," she said.

Earlier this month, Kinder Morgan the U.S.-based pipeline builder announcedit was stopping any non-essentialspending for the project. The companygave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government until May 31 to give a clear signal the project will proceed.

After that, Trudeau called alast-minute meeting withAlberta Premier RachelNotley and B.C. Premier John Horgan. The political leaders met Sunday in Ottawa to discuss the pipeline and the ongoing deadlock, but their positions remained unchanged.

The primeministerrepeated Ottawa's commitment to ensure the project is finished, saying his government will hold private, financial talks with Kinder Morgan in order tomove forward.

The federal government will be notified ofB.C.'s intention to file areference case, which will need to go through provincial cabinet before it's filed.

It's entirely up to the court to set a date for the hearing, so Eby couldn't say whether B.C. will have its day in courtbefore Kinder Morgan's May 31 deadline.

However, the attorney general said the province deliberatelychose to go to its own highest courtin the interest of time he said the government could haveasked the federal government if it wanted to submit a joint reference question, in which case the issue could've gone straight to the Supreme Court of Canada, but that may have taken longer.

"One of the big factors in forming our decision to go to the Court of Appeal was our desire to get finality around this as soon as possible," Eby said. "As far as what we're able to do [on our own] by law, we're only able to go to the B.C. Court of Appeal."

Asked if B.C. would take the battle to the Supreme Court of Canada if it wasn'tsatisfied by the outcome inprovincial court, Eby said the province would"cross that bridge when we come to it."