Ecojustice is calling on the Minister of Environment and Climate Change not to approve the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (RBT2) expansion.
Located at the mouth of British Columbia’s Fraser River, the shipping terminal project proposed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority poses a threat to endangered killer whales, wild salmon, and other wildlife that rely on the Fraser estuary. Since 2014, Ecojustice has represented the David Suzuki Foundation, Georgia Strait Alliance, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and Wilderness Committee in the environmental assessment of the RBT2 project
In 2019, Ecojustice represented our clients at a federal review panel hearing on the project. Ecojustice’s clients expressed concern about noise from vessel traffic associated with the expansion, marine pollution, threats to wild salmon and their rearing habitat, and threats to the other 119 species that call the Salish Sea home.
As a result, in 2020 the panel concluded that the expansion would have “numerous” adverse effects on the environment, including “significant adverse effects on Chinook salmon” and “significant adverse and cumulative effects on Southern Resident Killer Whales.” However despite scientific evidence by the government’s own panel that highlighted the permanent and irreversible impact of the expansion on the already threatened marine species, in April 2023, the Cabinet decided to green-light the RBT2 project.
Undeterred, in May 2023 Ecojustice, on behalf of our clients, filed an application challenging this decision to approve the RBT2 Project under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The conservation groups argue that the approval is unlawful under the Species at Risk Act .
We remain committed to protecting the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales and Chinook salmon from the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion.
