The applicant First Nation brought an application for judicial review alleging that the Crown's failure to decide applications for Permits to Take Water (PTTW) for existing hydroelectric dams breached the duty to consult and accommodate.
The Crown subsequently amended the Ontario Water Resources Act to exempt the dams from the PTTW requirement, as they were already regulated under the Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act.
The Divisional Court dismissed the application, finding that the PTTW applications did not trigger the duty to consult because they sought only to continue historical operations without introducing novel adverse impacts.
Furthermore, the legislative amendments were not unconstitutional as they did not remove the sole trigger for consultation, which remained available under the overlapping regulatory regime.
