Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling requiring further consideration of Indigenous-rights obligations for a proposed nuclear-waste facility at Chalk River.
The October 16 decision allowed Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ appeal and dismissed Kebaowek First Nation’s cross-appeal. The project is intended to store low-level radioactive waste.
The Federal Court had sent the matter back to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission over additional obligations it found in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. It had not set aside the commission’s construction approval.
The appeal court held that the Act did not itself implement declaration provisions inconsistent with existing Canadian law. Instead, it requires the Government of Canada to work with Indigenous peoples to bring Canadian laws into alignment.
The commission was not that government for the purpose of resolving such inconsistencies. The appeal concerned these asserted additional duties, not a fresh determination of the existing duty to consult, which the commission had met.
The result removes the lower court’s referral back to the regulator; it is an appellate judgment, not a new construction licence.
Official court summary and judgment links, 2026 FCA 174.
