The Kingsvale Transmission Line project may not have had the size of other national infrastructure deals, but Bob Jensen is clear about its significance. “It was the most satisfying transaction of my career,” he says. That statement carries weight coming from a veteran commercial lawyer whose four-decade career includes massive transactions such as Energy East, Coastal GasLink and Alaska LNG.
Jensen, who served as senior counsel for the Kinder Morgan Canada/Trans Mountain expansion project before retiring, points to Kingsvale’s complexity – and its impact – as key reasons why it stands out. “You can have a smaller project that has a lot of complex issues, and innovative thinking and much patience to achieve workable solutions,” he says. The construction, operation and maintenance, and $200 million sale of the 26 km, 138 kV line to the Lower Nicola Indian Band (LNIB) and EPCOR may have been a fraction of the Trans Mountain expansion project’s scope, but it demanded a sharp legal and commercial approach to navigate an unprecedented ownership structure, wildfire-related insurance gaps, and regulatory overlap between federal and provincial jurisdictions.
The transaction’s innovation and impact were recognized with a Mid-Market Deal of the Year award at the 2025 Canadian Law Awards.
For Trans Mountain, Kingsvale was a minor component. But for LNIB, Jensen says, it was “groundbreaking.” It represented a transformative opportunity, contemplated in a mutual benefit agreement signed with Kinder Morgan, for the band to own, operate and maintain critical infrastructure running through their traditional territory. “To my knowledge, it’s the first transaction… where an Indigenous group owns a majority interest in an equity ownership of major infrastructure.”
But the original plan nearly collapsed when financing hit an unexpected barrier: the wildfire risk in BC made it impossible to secure full replacement-cost property insurance, a non-negotiable condition for third-party lenders. “They were not able to get full replacement cost insurance coverage for the line,” Jensen says. With lenders unwilling to back the transaction without that insurance, LNIB had to pivot. Their original partner pulled out, unable to justify the investment. Enter EPCOR, which stepped in with the resources and flexibility to finance the transaction directly.
To cover the risk, an unconventional solution was needed. Jensen describes a hybrid model where the owners – EPCOR and LNIB – would cover any losses beyond a deductible in the event of wildfire damage, with Trans Mountain reimbursing that cost through tolls over the remaining lifespan of the line. “We wanted to use an insurance concept even though there were no insurance companies involved,” he says. Structuring that fallback mechanism required converting risk-transfer provisions typically seen in insurance contracts into a commercial agreement.
Jensen makes clear that the legal and logistical hurdles went well beyond risk allocation. The Kingsvale project required navigating jurisdictional shifts as well. Initially under federal authority – because Trans Mountain was a federally regulated project – the line’s eventual sale to LNIB and EPCOR required that Crown environmental, right-of-way, and road access permits and approvals be reissued directly by the province of British Columbia. “That resulted in additional consultation and accommodation being required with several Indigenous groups,” he says, as well as renegotiating and amending right-of-way and road-access agreements on private lands, assignment/novation agreements, and addressing residual opposition from First Nations initially opposed to the Trans Mountain expansion project itself.
The project's regulatory twists created additional hurdles. “One of the complicating factors was federal, then provincial jurisdiction,” he says. The BC Oil and Gas Commission initially approved the environmental aspects of the federally regulated transmission line, but the transmission line sale shifted oversight to the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. “All of the approvals and permits… had to be reissued,” he explains.
Despite these challenges, Jensen emphasizes the collaboration it took to keep the project moving. That included extensive discussions with the Upper Nicola Indian Band, which initially opposed the Trans Mountain expansion project. “It took a lot of time and effort and many meetings,” with the heavy lifting done by the very experienced and skilled Trans Mountain Indigenous relations group, he says, citing coordination between federal and provincial Crown reps, LNIB and other Indigenous groups, and Trans Mountain.
Asked whether this transaction could be a precedent for future Indigenous-led infrastructure projects, Jensen is pragmatic. “The challenge is always going to be financing,” he says. Kingsvale succeeded, in part, because of EPCOR’s willingness to step in and LNIB/EPCOR’s track record during the operation and maintenance phase leading up to the sale. That credibility helped – LNIB had already been maintaining the line successfully for three years before the transaction closed. “They had an impeccable record doing that,” he says.
That operational experience was a critical part of the value proposition. As Jensen sees it, that history makes the Kingsvale structure replicable, so long as others can overcome the financing hurdle. “Kingsvale is a good precedent to show banks and lenders that it’s all possible.”
From a legal execution perspective, much of the work was done in-house at Trans Mountain, but outside counsel stepped in where needed. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP helped secure registered easements, manage confidential commercial terms that accompanied those land rights, guided the transition from federal to provincial jurisdiction, and coordinated the closing. Osler partner Andrea Boctor described the transaction to Canadian Lawyer as “the first deal in Canada where a single Indigenous group became a majority owner and active participant in the operations and maintenance of a high-voltage transmission line.” She added that it was “the next step in energy project transactions with Indigenous nations.”
Reflecting on his career, Jensen acknowledges how early opportunities shaped his trajectory. Only a few years out of law school, he was working on the landmark Cigar Lake uranium deal with the Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation (now Cameco). “It is one of the highest concentration uranium deposits in the world,” he says. That early exposure to complex, resource-heavy transactions was formative. His advice to younger lawyers: lean into opportunities, even if they seem intimidating. “Try to get involved in whatever opportunities for additional experience present themselves… study hard and work to learn the business,” he says.
Jensen’s view of reconciliation is grounded in pragmatic progress. “These economic opportunities are all part of making reconciliation work,” he says, pointing to the value of Indigenous groups gaining ownership, operating experience and industry partnerships. Kingsvale wasn’t just a transaction – it was a step forward in making Indigenous economic participation in major infrastructure real.