ATHABASCA CHIPEWYAN FIRST NATION V. ALBERTA, 2018 ABQB 262
In this case, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench judicially
reviewed a decision of the Aboriginal Consultation Office (ACO)
that the duty to consult with the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation
was not triggered in relation to the Grand Rapids pipeline project
proposed in Treaty 8 territory. The Alberta Energy Regulator had
approved the pipeline in 2014.
Athabasca, a Treaty 8 First Nation, sought to quash the
ACO's decision, but, novelly, neither asked for the matter to
be returned to the ACO for reconsideration, nor challenged the
regulator's approval of the project. Instead, it sought
declarations about the ACO's policies and procedures applicable
to whether the duty to consult is triggered, including the
ACO's use of "consultation maps" when making that
determination. The ACO had found that the duty to consult was not
triggered on the basis of the pipeline's location on a map that
identified areas where a
