The Regina Chamber of Commerce is encouraged to hear the Trans Mountain Pipeline survived another legal hurdle after Tuesday’s Federal Court of Appeal decision.

The court decided the federal government had followed steps to consult with First Nations groups involved with the project’s path despite a group of four First Nations coming together saying they were not consulted.

Chamber CEO John Hopkins said with crews in place, it’s about time this project begins construction.

“It’s important to the Canadian economy and it really sends the message out that we are serious about building the western Canadian economy in terms of getting this pipeline done.”

Hopkins said while the pipeline doesn’t run through Saskatchewan, it does help the province by taking capacity away from the existing system.

“The more that we can add to the infrastructure, in terms of pipeline capacity, the more that frees that up for other capacity in Saskatchewan. That’s the impact it’ll have.”

Hopkins said he hopes this decision can help set a precedent for future pipeline projects.

“We’re hoping that if we can get this pipeline built, that we could see our way to getting more built,” Hopkins said. “Of course, we’ll have to see what the impacts are of Bill C-69 and C-48, that type of thing, whether we’ll be able to do some of these major projects.

“Having Trans Mountain move ahead is very positive,” Hopkins added.

While this is seen as a major victory for the project, the First Nations groups are still able to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, and have less than two months to do so. The Supreme Court would then decide whether or not they will hear the case.