The Canada Energy Regulator has approved Trans Mountain Corp.’s application to modify the pipeline’s route.

The Crown corporation that owns the pipeline project had requested permission to alter the route slightly for a 1.3-kilometre stretch of pipe in the Jacko Lake area (Pipsell) near Kamloops, as well as the construction method for that section.

Trans Mountain Corp. said it had run into engineering difficulties in the area related to the construction of a tunnel.

But Trans Mountain’s application was opposed by the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation, whose traditional territory the pipeline crosses and who had only agreed to the originally proposed route.

Trans Mountain Corp. had said if its route deviation request was denied, it could result in a nine-month delay and $86 million more to the pipeline’s final price tag.

In 2018, the federal government bought the pipeline from Kinder Morgan for $4.8 billion after the company warned that it would cancel the expansion project due to environmental opposition.

Estimates from May 2023 revealed the cost of completing twinning the original pipeline to carry more bitumen from Alberta to Burnaby – has ballooned to more than $30 billion.

The Canada Energy Regulator says it will release the reasons for its decision in the coming weeks.

– With files from Radio NL