The Tłı̨chǫ Government cannot intervene in a court case over the decisions an NWT environmental regulator is allowed to make, a judge has ruled.
The Gwich’in Tribal Council is in the middle of arguing that the Gwich’in Land and Water Board overstepped when it allowed waste management firm KBL to bring contaminated soil from beyond the board’s area of jurisdiction to an Inuvik facility.
The Tłı̨chǫ Government had asked for permission to intervene in the case, expressing concern that the outcome might restrict the operations of the Wek’èezhii Land and Water Board, which covers Tłı̨chǫ lands and water and draws its powers from the same legislation.
At the centre of that concern, according to a summary of the case issued by the court this week, is the Gwich’in Tribal Council’s assertion that regulatory decisions involving more than one board’s management area should be the domain of the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board. (The other land and water boards are, legally, “regional panels” of the Mackenzie Valley one.)
“The Tłı̨chǫ Government is concerned this argument, if accepted, will minimize the role the Wek’éezhii Land and Water Board plays in managing land and water in Wek’èezhii, that is, Tłı̨chǫ lands,” asserted the summary, prepared by NWT Supreme Court Justice Karan Shaner.
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Shaner noted that two of the Wek’éezhii Land and Water Board’s members are appointed by the Tłı̨chǫ Government, and the Tłı̨chǫ Government had argued that any court decision limiting the WLWB’s authority “will, in turn, have an effect on the Tłı̨chǫ Government and its ability to manage its lands.”
She disagreed, however, that this meant the Tłı̨chǫ Government should be able to intervene in the current case, saying its interest “does not rise to the level of direct interest or potential adverse effects required by law to grant it intervener status.”
The WLWB is an independent tribunal and not part of the Tłı̨chǫ Government, regardless of who is on the board, Shaner wrote, and the current case involving the Gwich’in Land and Water Board is so specific that it will “neither expand or reduce” the WLWB’s authority as enshrined in law.
Shaner added that the thrust of the Tłı̨chǫ Government’s argument is already represented in the case by KBL, which also argues that the Gwich’in Land and Water Board got it right and there was no error of jurisdiction.
