Category Archives: Environmental

Extending Limitation Periods for Environmental Actions

By: Nickie Nikolaou

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Case Commented On: Lakeview Village Professional Centre Corporation v Suncor Energy Inc, 2016 ABQB 288 (CanLII)

The nature of environmental contamination often requires the bending of usual legal rules. Because contamination can take years to develop or be discovered, the application of traditional limitation periods to actions for the recovery of damages from environmental contamination could result in unfairness. It could also mean the ultimate costs of clean-up would fall to the public purse if no financially viable party is liable for the clean-up. Alberta has modified its statutory limitation periods to address this problem. Section 218 of the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, RSA 2000, c. E-12 (EPEA) allows a court to extend a limitation period “where the basis for the proceeding is an alleged adverse effect resulting from the alleged release of a substance into the environment.” After years on the books, this is the first case to clarify the procedure courts should follow under section 218 of the EPEA. Continue reading →

Fisheries Act Review Should Be Evidence-Based

By: Martin Olszynski

PDF Version: Fisheries Act Review Should Be Evidence-Based

Matter Commented On: Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans Review of the Fisheries Protection Provisions (section 35) of the Fisheries Act R.S.C. 1985 c. F-14.

Consistent with the Prime Minister’s mandate letter to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Liberal government’s announcement this past summer of a broad review of the federal environmental and regulatory regime, the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) is about to begin its review of the changes to the habitat protection provisions of the Fisheries Act introduced by the previous Conservative government back in 2012. I have previously blogged about those changes here and here, and eventually wrote an article about them. What follows is a letter that I recently sent to FOPO with respect to the scope of its review, urging it to ensure that it has the evidentiary foundation necessary to make its review meaningful. Continue reading →

The International Human Right to Science and its Application to Geoengineering Research and Development

By: Kristin Barham and Anna-Maria Hubert

PDF Version:  The International Human Right to Science and its Application to Geoengineering Research and Development

International Agreements Commented On: Article 27 of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 15 of the 1966 United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

“Scientific and technical advances bring unquestioned benefits, but they also generate new uncertainties and failures, with the result that doubt continually undermines knowledge, and unforeseen consequences confound faith in progress.”

  • Sheila Jasanoff, “Technologies of Humility: Citizen Participation in Governing Science” (2003) 41 Minerva 223, 224

There is a growing body of social science literature emphasising a need for science and technological innovation to be more accountable to society and to take into account the full spectrum of uncertainties surrounding these processes. These calls are often manifested as calls for greater reflexivity, transparency and public participation in R&D. Environmental law – with its focus on the prevention of environmental harm and precaution – provides an important site for regulation and governance for many advances in science and technology. There is an obvious logic to this choice, given the countless examples of technologies that have contributed to environmental damage at various phases of their lifecycles. However, there are conceptual limits to the application of environmental law for governing upstream R&D, as environmental obligations primarily aim at preventing or minimizing actual physical harm to the environment. Precautionary risk assessment and management are examples of governance tools for asserting greater control over research and innovation processes. However, although environmental law is increasingly informed by a broader framework of sustainable development that draws upon a range of legal subject areas, an environmental framing does not directly target the social and ethical concerns that dominate the early stages of science and the development of emerging technologies. Continue reading →

Note to Canada on the Northern Gateway Project: This is NOT What Deep Consultation With Aboriginal People Looks Like

By: Sharon Mascher

PDF Version: Note to Canada on the Northern Gateway Project: This is NOT What Deep Consultation With Aboriginal People Looks Like

Case Commented On: Gitxaala Nation v. Canada, 2016 FCA 187 (CanLII)

On June 20, 2016, the majority of the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) quashed Order in Council P.C. 2014-809 requiring the National Energy Board (NEB) to issue Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity to Northern Gateway on the basis that Canada had not fulfilled the duty to consult it owed to Aboriginal peoples affected by the Project. Concluding that “Canada offered only a brief, hurried, and inadequate opportunity in Phase IV – a critical part of Canada’s consultation framework – to exchange and discuss information and dialogue” (at para 325), the Court identifies several ways in which the consultation process fell “well short of the mark”. Marking a crucial step in the “Northern Gateway legal saga” (for a list of previous ABlawg posts, going as far back as 2012, see here), the FCA has remitted the matter to the Governor in Council for redetermination. While entitled to make a fresh decision, the FCA has made clear that should it decide to do so the Governor in Council may only issue Certificates for the Project after Canada has fulfilled its duty to consult with Aboriginal peoples (at para 335).

Needless to say, the substantive guidance provided by the majority’s decision will be important whenever the duty to consult is engaged going forward. In the immediate future, attention will be focused on what this means for the Northern Gateway Project and the Trans Mountain Expansion Project consultations currently underway in accordance with the Federal Government’s interim measures. Continue reading →

Northern Gateway: Federal Court of Appeal Applies Wrong CEAA Provisions and Unwittingly Affirms Regressiveness of 2012 Budget Bills

By: Martin Olszynski

PDF Version: Northern Gateway: Federal Court of Appeal Applies Wrong CEAA Provisions and Unwittingly Affirms Regressiveness of 2012 Budget Bills

Case Commented On: Gitxaala Nation v. Canada, 2016 FCA 187 (CanLII)

On June 20, 2016, the Federal Court of Appeal released its much anticipated decision in the Northern Gateway legal saga (for a list of previous ABlawg posts, going as far back as 2012, see here). The Court quashed the Governor-in-Council (i.e. Cabinet) Order directing the National Energy Board (the Board) to issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity to Northern Gateway on the basis that the federal government did not fulfill its duty to consult. My colleague Sharon Mascher is preparing a blog post on that part of the decision. In this post, I focus on the Court’s approach to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, SC 2012, c 19, s 52 and its dismissal, in essentially a single paragraph (para 125), of all of the substantive challenges to the Joint Review Panel’s report. As further discussed below, the Court appears to have applied the wrong provisions of the CEAA, 2012, with considerable implications for both the substantive challenges to the JRP report as well as Cabinet’s determination that Northern Gateway’s significant adverse environmental effects are “justified in the circumstances” (CEAA, 2012 subs 52(4)). It is nevertheless important to consider the Court’s approach because the provisions that it did apply are applicable to Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain Pipeline review and TransCanada’s Energy East project. Continue reading →