Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision to strike down the Trans Mountain expansion approval confirmed the federal government’s decision to buy the pipeline was the right one.

At a press conference in Toronto hours after the decision was released, Morneau said the Liberals had inherited a "flawed" project assessment process from the previous Conservative government, and had "set out to improve that process. The court decision actually said the process we put in place was a distinct improvement."

He said the government was reviewing the decision “carefully” and considering its next steps and would respond “promptly and in a meaningful way” as the court requested.

“What we really saw today was a confirmation that our government’s decision to buy this pipeline because of political risks that were difficult for a private actor to manage was absolutely the right [one],” he said. “We know this pipeline, which is in the national interest, needs to get built. We know we’re the ones to de-risk it.”

Morneau said the court decision was part of “important next steps in getting this project built in the right way, and for the benefit of all Canadians.”

In her decision this morning, Federal Court Justice Eleanor Dawson stated that the National Energy Board had failed to account for tanker traffic in its report, and that the federal government had not fulfilled its duty to adequately consult with Indigenous groups before approving the project.

Dawson quashed the order to approve construction on the project, and sent it back to the federal government “for appropriate action, if it sees fit, to address these flaws, and, later, proper redetermination.”

Related: Federal court quashes Trans Mountain approval

Less than an hour later, Kinder Morgan Canada shareholders voted by a margin of 99 per cent to approve the sale of the pipeline and expansion-related infrastructure. Morneau said the deal could close as early as tomorrow.

Morneau declined to say whether the federal government would appeal the decision, and said he was “absolutely committed to moving forward with [the pipeline].”

Bill Gallagher, a lawyer and author of Resource Rulers: Fortune and Folly on Canada’s Road to Resources, said he believed the federal government got “bamboozled” into buying the pipeline.

“They never strategized for this pipeline fiasco and everything they’ve done has been in reaction,” he said, “and to me they look like rank amateurs.”

Gallagher has been tracking First Nations legal wins against resource projects in Canada. He said the Trans Mountain decision was the 264th, and was a "replay" of the ruling that killed Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline two years ago.

"The evidence would indicate we are slow learners on the road to resources," he said. "The fact that this [ruling] mimics Northern Gateway would indicate we're obviously going about it the wrong way.”