Category: Environmental Page 40 of 59

Northern Gateway Approved Despite Uncertain Environmental Effects: Is This What Sustainable Development Looks Like?

On July 3, 2014

In Environmental, Oil & Gas, Protection of Species

By: Shaun Fluker

PDF Version: Northern Gateway Approved Despite Uncertain Environmental Effects: Is This What Sustainable Development Looks Like?

Decision commented on: National Energy Board, Northern Gateway Decision Statement

On June 17, 2014 the National Energy Board issued a decision statement to Enbridge under section 54(1) of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, SC 2012, c 19, s 52 announcing that the federal Governor in Council had approved the Northern Gateway pipeline subject to the 209 conditions recommended by the Northern Gateway panel (The panel report was the subject of earlier ABlawg comments here and here). The Governor in Council accepted the panel’s recommendations that the pipeline will have significant adverse environmental effects to populations of woodland caribou and grizzly bears, but that these effects are justified in the circumstances. I will comment on this approval by comparing it to another major resource project decision issued on the very same day, June 17, 2014 – albeit one issued on the other side of the globe in New Zealand.

Greenpeace v Canada: Symbolic Blow to the Nuclear Industry, Game-changer for Everyone Else?

By Martin Olszynski

On June 9, 2014

In Energy, Environmental

By: Martin Olszynski

PDF Version: Greenpeace v Canada: Symbolic Blow to the Nuclear Industry, Game-changer for Everyone Else?

Case commented on: Greenpeace Canada v Canada (Attorney General), 2014 FC 463 (CanLII)

In this lengthy (431 paragraphs) decision, the Federal Court allowed in part Greenpeace et al’s application for judicial review regarding the Joint Review Panel report(the Report) for the Darlington New Nuclear project proposed by Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Justice Russell held that the environmental assessment (EA) conducted by the Joint Review Panel (JRP) failed to comply with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, SC 1992 c 37 (as it then was). Specifically, there were gaps in the treatment of hazardous substances emissions and spent nuclear fuel, and a failure to consider the effects of a severe “common cause” accident. As noted by the media, while the decision is of limited effect on a project already indefinitely postponed by the province, “it is a symbolic blow to an industry coping with the public and political fallout from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima meltdown.” As further discussed below, the decision is also likely to have implications for EA in Canada generally and several other projects currently making their way through either the regulatory process or the courts, including Taseko’s New Prosperity mine, Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline.

North American Environmental Commission Investigating Tailings Ponds Leakage Not Deterred by Private Prosecution

By Martin Olszynski

On April 30, 2014

In Environmental, Fisheries Regulation

By: Martin Olszynski

Decision commented on: Notification to the Submitters and to Council regarding a proceeding notified by Canada (SEM-10-002) (Alberta Tailings Ponds)

PDF version: North American Environmental Commission Investigating Tailings Ponds Leakage Not Deterred by Private Prosecution

Much has been written recently about the Fisheries Act, RSC 1985 c F-14, that often (and perhaps excessively) venerated piece of federal environmental legislation so maligned by industry and other private interests that the Conservative government, in its 2012 omnibus budget legislation, decided to tamper with its provisions in what has been described as a “gutting” (see here, here, here, here, and here) but that upon closer examination appears more like cosmetic surgery (which is to say, still unnecessary and unhelpful but mostly superficial; see e.g. the new policy from Fisheries and Oceans Canada). Still more ink has been spilled in the wake of the recently enacted Regulations Establishing Conditions for Making Regulations under Subsection 36(5.2) of the Fisheries Act, which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) initially stated would have no impact on regulatees or the public at large while the private bar and environmental groups described them as marking a “significant shift in the regulatory regime for managing water quality in Canada” and as “another tangible and integral step in the overall de-regulation agenda.” Following the April 14 release of a decision of the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in relation to the alleged non-enforcement of section 36 of the Fisheries Act to Alberta’s oil sands (CEC Decision), I decided that it was time to spill some ink of my own.

The Past, Present, and Future of CIRL’s “Environment in the Courtroom” Symposia

By Martin Olszynski

On April 23, 2014

In Environmental

By: Martin Olszynski and Allan Ingelson

Workshops commented on: Environment in the Courtroom (I): Key Environmental Concepts and the Unique Nature of Environmental Damage; Environment in the Courtroom (II): Environmental Prosecutions; Environment in the Courtroom (III): Sentencing and Environmental Offences

PDF version: The Past, Present, and Future of CIRL’s “Environment in the Courtroom” Symposia

Over the course of the last three years and with the support of Environment Canada (EC), the Canadian Institute for Resources Law (CIRL) has organized a series of symposia intended to strengthen the understanding and application of environmental law in Canadian courtrooms. In this post, we provide a snapshot of what this series has accomplished thus far and, thanks to continued funding and support from EC, the vision going forward as we plan the next three years of symposia.

Leave to Appeal Granted in NRCB Case Concerning Participatory Rights and the Interpretation of ‘Directly Affected’ Persons Entitled to a Hearing

By Shaun Fluker

On April 17, 2014

In Environmental, Intervenors and Standing, Natural Resources

By: Shaun Fluker

PDF Version: Leave to Appeal Granted in NRCB Case Concerning Participatory Rights and the Interpretation of ‘Directly Affected’ Persons Entitled to a Hearing

Decision commented on: JH Drilling Inc. v Alberta (Natural Resources Conservation Board), 2014 ABCA 134

The Alberta Court of Appeal has granted leave to JH Drilling to appeal a ‘standing’ decision by the Natural Resources Conservation Board (NRCB). While not a decision on the merits of the issue, this leave decision is significant because the question for appeal will concern the NRCB’s interpretation of ‘directly affected’ in its governing legislation to determine participatory rights before the Board. Moreover, the interest asserted by JH Drilling to be directly affected here is one of a commercial nature – JH Drilling is not a landowner or resident in the immediate vicinity of the proposed project in this case. To my knowledge, this merit hearing will be the first time the Court of Appeal considers participatory rights before the NRCB.