The BC Transmission Corporation was within its legal rights when it videotaped Tsawwassen residents protesting its plans to construct new power lines through their yards, the Office of the B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner ruled Thursday.

Residents had told CBC News they were troubled by video crews who were taping them after they learned of the practice in early June.

An unidentified man gave several residents packages containing newspaper articles, transcripts of conversations between residents and BCTC employees, e-mails, photographs and video recordings of resident involvement in protests against the transmission lines.

After hearing the story on CBC Radio, the Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis launched an investigation into the surveillance.

But BCTC maintained it was concerned some residents might block access to a construction site located on private residential properties and otherwise interfere with construction, and it was gathering information to support its application for an injunction to allow the work to proceed.

In a ruling issued Thursday morning, the executive director of the office of the privacy commissioner, Mary Carlson, said she accepted that BCTC was collecting information solely to support its application in court and that there was no suggestion there was any covert surveillance.

Meanwhile, the two sides are back in court Thursday over a broader enforcement injunction the BC Transmission Corporation is seeking to keep protesters away from its work site.

Just days before the residents received the package, the Supreme Court of British Columbia granted an injunction to the corporation, thereby obliging four homeowners who had been blocking construction on their properties to allow the workers access to begin building the transmission towers.

The controversial installation of the power lines, which will supply power to Vancouver Island, was vigorously opposed by many Tsawwassen residents who fear the high-voltage lines passing close to homes and schools will be a health risk.

Tsawwassen is on the southwest tip of mainland B.C., across the Georgia Strait from Vancouver Island.