Posted on July 13, 2026
The səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) is suing to overturn federal approvals allowing the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority to dredge Burrard Inlet.
The port authority announced last month that a plan to dredge 25,000 cubic metres of material from the Second Narrows to allow oil tankers to move through more fully loaded had cleared its own internal environmental review and been given the OK from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Currently, Aframax tankers leaving the Westridge Marine Terminal can only fill to 75 to 80 per cent capacity before their draft will become too low for safe navigation through the channel.
Work to remove the material is set to begin in September when the fisheries window opens. But in court documents filed in federal court this week, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation is seeking an injunction to stop that work and have the permits overturned.
“While Tsleil-Waututh understands the proposed dredge is an important step for Canada’s international trade objectives, including increasing the amount of oil moving through the Inlet from Westridge Marine Terminal, the approval process has been rushed and has not addressed any of Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s concerns about marine shipping impacts,” said Chief Justin George in a statement.
In the application for judicial review, the Nation raises numerous issues it tried to have addressed before the permits were issued.
The Second Narrows, or Tsa-ah-nah in the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language, is site of significance for the Tsleil-Waututh’s culture, spirituality, history and identity, the applications notes. None of the federal approval processes for the dredging project considered how their rights, culture and way of life, including their sacred connection to the inlet, may be impacted, they argue.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion’s approval, which the Tsleil-Waututh were steadfastly opposed to, was predicated on the notion that tankers could only fill to 80 per cent capacity, meaning no regulatory body has ever assessed the risks of the project with them fully loaded.
If the work is completed, Trans Mountain intends to increase its oil output by up to 360,000 barrels of oil per day. That will mean changes in the timing and frequency of tanker and tugboat crossings through the Second Narrows and casting wakes onto local shorelines, the court documents state.
The Nation still has unanswered questions about the risks to whales and herring and what impacts the change could mean for kelp and eelgrass beds, which are critical habitats the Tsleil-Waututh have been trying to restore.
The Nation wrote to numerous federal departments highlighting those gaps in the assessments but they never received any response, the application states, and the port officials said their assessment was limited to the physical works of the dredging.
The Nation will be filing a second court action to overturn the Department of Fisheries and Ocean’s approval of the project as well, the documents note.
“Tsleil-Waututh has a sacred stewardship obligation, a responsibility to care for our lands, air and waters. While we attempted to resolve these outstanding issues in good faith, our concerns were ignored, leaving us no choice but to go to court to protect our territory and interests,” George said in his statement. “A well-planned economic initiative needs to include addressing and accommodating impacts to Tsleil-Waututh’s inherent and constitutionally-protected rights. That did not happen here.”
The port has not yet filed a response to court documents and none of the allegations have been heard by a judge.
“The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority respects Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s right to participate in the judicial review process. We are reviewing the filing and are not in a position to comment further at this time,” a statement from the port read on Thursday.
Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), meanwhile, has released its own statement raising “significant concerns and outstanding questions” about the project.
“Existing tanker and port-related vessel traffic already has major impacts on Burrard Inlet, and cultural impacts on our Sḵwx̱wú7mesh People. Increasing vessel movement will only compound these issues,” said chairperson Sxwíxwtn Wilson Williams. “We welcome the opportunity to discuss our concerns directly with the federal government. In the meantime, we are working internally to determine our next steps.”
