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A\u00a0British\u00a0Columbia\u00a0First Nation says it has launched a legal challenge against a plan by the\u00a0Vancouver\u00a0Fraser Port Authority to\u00a0dredge\u00a0Burrard Inlet to make room for oil tankers with larger loads to operate.<\/p>\n
In a release, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation says it has filed for a judicial review, seeking to overturn the permits issued by the port authority to allow for the\u00a0dredging\u00a0to take place.<\/p>\n
The plan calls for the\u00a0dredging\u00a0along northern and southern edges of the navigation channel in Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet underneath the Second Narrows Bridge, starting in September.<\/p>\n
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation says while it understands the project’s importance for Canada’s trade needs, the approval process was “rushed” and did not address any of its concerns about the impacts of the operation \u2014 including the “risks of more fully laden oil tankers traversing the inlet.”<\/p>\n
WATCH | Burrard Inlet dredging scheduled for September:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783868505_294_default.jpg\")
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Dredging of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet to start in September<\/p>\n
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has received federal approval to dredge Burrard Inlet. Work to remove sediment from the seabed near the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge is expected to start in September. As Amelia John reports, the project will allow ships to carry more oil from the Trans Mountain pipeline.<\/p>\n
The nation also says the existing cumulative impact of shipping in the inlet has already infringed on the Tsleil-Waututh to the point where community members cannot practise their way of life.<\/p>\n
The statement says\u00a0dredging\u00a0to accommodate larger tankers brings with it changes in marine shipping patterns, oil spill risk and shoreline erosion, all of which would add to the already damaging existing cumulative impacts.<\/p>\n
“Tsleil-Waututh has a sacred stewardship obligation, a responsibility to care for our lands, air and waters,” Chief Justin George says in the statement.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
The port authority said in June that it had received all federal permits to allow the\u00a0dredging, which would open up room for more heavily laden tankers to load up from the Trans Mountain pipeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The authority has said the operation would allow larger vessels such as Aframax-class tankers filling up at the Westridge Marine Terminal to \u201cload more fully.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, Trans Mountain says on its website that such tankers are generally loaded to about 80 per cent of capacity because that’s what the inlet’s depth could allow.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney first floated the idea of\u00a0dredging\u00a0Burrard Inlet in the spring 2025, but the most recent federal budget does not include any specific references to the project, beyond promises to “improve access” to overseas markets by investing in new airport, railway and port infrastructure.<\/p>\n
B.C.’s government also supports the project, and Energy Minister Adrian Dix said last year that the federal project “would allow for less traffic at the port and better utilization” because ships could fully load.<\/p>\n
The port says the work will not change the number or size of the largest vessel type currently sailing underneath the Second Narrows, noting that Aframax-class tankers will remain the largest vessels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0dredging\u00a0comes about two years after the expanded TMX pipeline started operating in May 2024 and there have been calls to expand it again to help diversify energy exports away from the United States during recent trade friction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A background document from the agency has said that\u00a0dredging\u00a0would remove about 25,000 cubic metres of material while digging to a maximum depth of about six metres below the sea floor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-797248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}