#Canadian Natonal Railway

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has largely upheld an order forcing Canadian National Railway to pay more than $16 million for causing a wildfire that burned for months near Lytton in 2015.

It cost the province millions of dollars to fight the flames ignited when sparks from CN's rail-cutting activities set the surrounding grass ablaze during a spell of hot, dry and windy weather, according to reasons for judgment released Wednesday.

The wildfire started burning on June 11, 2015, and would eventually spread to cover 22 square kilometres before it was finally extinguished that October. Several people living on Lytton First Nation land were forced to evacuate, the community of Lytton was placed on evacuation alert and an empty building was destroyed.

In March 2020, the Forest Appeals Commission ordered CN to pay a total of $16.62 million in penalties, firefighting expenses, damage to natural resources and costs for reforestation. [...]

CN has never disputed that it broke B.C.'s wildfire laws and regulations, but the company has argued at both the appeals commission and in court that the assessments for firefighting costs and damage to Crown land are too high.

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