Northern Cross Yukon has filed for a judicial review of last month’s decision to send its proposal for an exploration program in northern Yukon to a higher level of screening.

The application was filed Thursday at the Federal Court registry in Vancouver.

In July 2014, Northern Cross filed its proposal to drill up to 20 new exploration wells with the Dawson City office of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board.

After a year and a half in the process, the Dawson City office ruled it was not able to come to a conclusion on the application. It instead sent the file up to the assessment board’s executive committee to conduct a more thorough review.

“Northern Cross was very surprised and disappointed by this decision to refer the project to the Executive Committee for screening,” says a company press release issued yesterday.

“This Project represents the sixth time that Northern Cross has undergone a YESAB assessment of its exploration projects at Eagle Plain, but the time it has taken and the information requested to assess this Project are unprecedented.”

As part of the request for a judicial review of the decision by the Dawson City office, Northern Cross is claiming procedural unfairness.

Company president Richard Wyman said this morning from his office in Calgary the company was not provided with an opportunity to respond to late submissions to the assessment office that came in after the Dec. 9, 2015 deadline.

Among the late submissions was one from the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, according to court documents.

Nor was Northern Cross provided an opportunity to respond to some of the findings of the Dawson City office, he said today.

Wyman said now that Northern Cross has filed for a judicial review, he is limited in what he can say.

Rob Yeomans of the assessment board’s central office in Whitehorse said the board will not be commenting on the matter now that it’s before the courts.

Yeomans did confirm this is the first request for a judicial review of an assessment board decision in the board’s 11-year history.

The application was filed in the Federal Court because the assessment board is a product of and is governed by federal legislation.

Under the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Act, a designated office can either approve a proposal, reject it or send the matter up the ladder for a more thorough review by the executive committee.

The Dawson City office found that it was unable to conclude what, if any, impact the exploration project would have on the Porcupine caribou herd and whether any impact would have an adverse socio-economic effect on the communities depending on the herd for food.

The company said it’s open to sitting down with the assessment board to discuss “alternatives to a judicial review to complete the Project screening in as expeditious and cost effective manner as possible.”

In the application for judicial review, Northern Cross says the Dawson office made several errors in arriving at its decision to send the file up to the executive committee.

“The decision is unreasonable, taking into account the error of law and jurisdiction, the procedural fairness issues, and the erroneous findings of fact,” says the court document.

Among the orders the company is seeking from the Federal Court is an order compelling the Dawson office to reconsider its evaluation, “and in particular to determine whether the project will have, or is likely to have, significant adverse environmental and/or socio-economic effects on access to and use of the Porcupine caribou herd, and whether any such significant adverse effects can he mitigated.”

The decision to elevate the proposal to an executive committee screening prompted statements of concern from both the Yukon Chamber of Commerce and the Yukon Chamber of Mines.

Both organizations said the decision was a reflection of how the assessment process can be time-consuming, costly, cumbersome and a deterrent to investment in the Yukon.

“For Northern Cross, which has invested nearly two years of time and work to respond to and address all of YESAB’s required requests for information, to now be told that YESAB is unable to render a decision, is insupportable,” the chamber of commerce said in a press release. “This is a failure of the review process.”

The chamber said the decision undermined the process and the assessment organization.

Wyman said Northern Cross spent $100 million on it previous exploration project on Eagle Plain between the late fall of 2011 and early 2014.

Whether the company will press forward even if it loses its application for a judicial review, Wyman said he couldn’t say.

Since the company filed its most recent proposal for assessment in July 2014, he said, it has spent about $7 million on the assessment process, keeping the lights on and paying staff.