Category Archives: Environmental

What is the Concern with Recognizing GHGs as a Matter of National Concern?

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Matter Commented On: Reference re: Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

All eyes are on Saskatchewan this week, as the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal prepares to hear arguments in the federal greenhouse gas pricing reference. To most observers, this reference may appear to be simply about the constitutionality – or not – of the federal government’s greenhouse gas (GHG) pricing regime set out in the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, SC 2018, c 12, s 186 (GGPPA). As further set out in this post, however, for constitutional and environmental lawyers and scholars, this reference is less about whether the federal government can regulate GHGs but rather the basis upon which it can do so.

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Claims that Bill C-69 Needs More Focus on Economic Factors Ignore the Reality of Government Decision-Making and the Bill’s Details

By: Hugh Benevides

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Legislation Commented On: Bill C-69, An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

Much debate has occurred in recent months about Bill C-69, the federal government’s attempt to make good on election promises to strengthen and restore public trust in environmental decision-making. (Martin Olszynski addressed some of the problematic claims last September; other ABlawg posts have looked at various aspects of the Bill). As further set out below, the critics and opponents of Bill C-69, which was referred to a Senate committee in December following Second Reading, refuse to acknowledge that the proposed Impact Assessment Act will give Canadians the chance to have greater input into proposals affecting their communities, and to better trust decisions about projects like mines, dams—and yes, pipelines. It promises to do so by ensuring that people who care about a proposed development can participate meaningfully in its assessment, with a view to more lasting environmental, economic, social and health benefits.

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Sentencing Lake Louise Ski Resort Under the Species at Risk Act and A Comment on the Federal Environmental Damages Fund

By: Shaun Fluker

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Case Commented On: R v The Lake Louise Ski Area Ltd, 2018 ABPC 280 (CanLII)

In December 2017, the Lake Louise Ski Resort pled guilty to unlawfully cutting down and damaging 148 trees without a permit during the summer of 2013 in the Ptarmigan Chutes area of the resort. Some of the trees cut were whitebark pines, a species listed as endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act, SC 2002, c 29 (SARA). Section 32 of SARA prohibits any conduct that harms the endangered whitebark pines and section 97 makes it an offence to contravene this prohibition. Most of the trees cut at the resort were not from an endangered species, but were nonetheless cut down without authorization from Parks Canada, and thus Lake Louise also contravened section 10 of the National Parks General Regulations, SOR/78-213, which is an offence under section 24(2) of the Canada National Parks Act, SC 2000, c 32 (Parks Act). On November 30, 2018 Judge Heather Lamoureux of the Provincial Court of Alberta sentenced Lake Louise to a $1.6 million penalty under SARA for cutting the whitebark pines, and a $500,000 penalty under the Parks Act for unlawful cutting of the other trees, for a total penalty of $2.1 million which will be directed into the federal Environmental Damages Fund. Lake Louise has since filed an appeal with the Court of Queen’s Bench seeking to have this total penalty reduced to $200,000. Continue reading →

Bill C-88 Will Finally Eliminate the MVRMA “Superboard” … But Where’s the Rest?

By: David V. Wright

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Bill Commented On: Bill C-88, An Act to amend the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and the Canada Petroleum Resources Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

The Trudeau Government recently tabled Bill C-88, An Act to amend the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act and the Canada Petroleum Resources Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. This post focuses on the amendments to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, SC 1998, c 25 (MVRMA). The primary purpose of this portion of the Bill is to reverse several controversial amendments to the MVRMA. The Harper Government enacted these changes in 2014 as part of a broader suite of reforms to implement devolution in the Northwest Territories (NWT). These amendments sought to reform regulatory review bodies and co-management boards in the NWT by creating a “superboard”; however, the litigation discussed below stymied those plans. This post provides context around Bill C-88, summarizes the superboard litigation, and comments on an unfulfilled government commitment to conduct a broader review of northern assessment regimes.

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Recommendations for Endangered Species Legislation

By: Shaun Fluker

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Matter Commented On: Protecting Biodiversity in British Columbia: Recommendations for an Endangered Species Law in BC by a Species at Risk Expert Panel

This past summer I had the privilege of being invited to join a panel of conservation and biodiversity experts in British Columbia to develop a set of recommendations for endangered species legislation. The work is timely in that province, as the British Columbia government has announced plans to enact dedicated species at risk legislation. Members of the expert panel drew from their experience working within the science and policy of endangered species recovery and protection to put together a set of recommendations for the British Columbia government to consider as it works towards new legislation. The Report was published today, and it can be found here. Some of the recommendations in the Report are similar to those set out in A Proposal for Effective Legal Protection for Endangered Species Legislation in Alberta, including the need for provisions that ensure recovery measures are guided by science rather than politics. British Columbia currently has much the same legal framework as Alberta for endangered species legislation, which I described many years ago in Endangered species under Alberta’s Wildlife Act: Effective legal protection? as woefully inadequate and ineffective. British Columbia appears poised to change matters for the better within its borders. Will Alberta do the same?

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