Friday, April 19, 2013 Well, the writ’s been dropped and this Environmental Law Alert post is brought to you by the West Coast Environmental Law Association, sponsor under the Elections Act. We do understand the value of regulating advertising that is intended to sway elections, but the BC Elections Act
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Environmental Law Alert Blog: NEB should abandon undemocratic limits on public comment
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 Last Thursday, April 4th the National Energy Board (NEB) announced that anyone who wished to comment on Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline proposal in Central Canada even by simply writing a letter would need to fill out a 10 page application form within 2 weeks. This is,
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: NEB should abandon undemocratic limits on public comment
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 Last Thursday, April 4th the National Energy Board (NEB) announced that anyone who wished to comment on Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline proposal in Central Canada even by simply writing a letter would need to fill out a 10 page application form within 2 weeks. This is,
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: ”Fighting not just for our children, but for your children too …”
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 A snow storm that blew through central Canada made this year’s March 19 Ottawa’s snowiest on record. But there was more than weather to distinguish this as a historic date. In the evening, nine First Nations from across North America came together in a ceremony to
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: On Greenwashing Canada’s Enviro-Assessment Laws
Monday, April 8, 2013 A press release issued last Tuesday (April 2nd), by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) concerning a proposed Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) Export Terminal at Kitimat, BC referred to the "strengthened and modernized Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012)." This term appears literally tens
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Appointment of Federal Representative on Energy Infrastructure: Too Little Too Late?
Tuesday, April 2, 2013 As the Yinka Dene Alliance and their allies were gathering in Ottawa to renew their opposition to Tar Sands Pipelines on March 19th, Natural Resource Minister, Joe Oliver, was in Terrace, BC, to announce the appointment of Vancouver-based lawyer, Douglas Eyford, as a “Special Federal Representative
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Privatizing Salmon Protection: The Failure of the Riparian Areas Regulation
Thursday, March 28, 2013 In BC, key protection for fish habitat is supposed to be provided by the Riparian Areas Regulation (RAR) – a law intended to ensure that residential and other development is set back from the waterways that provide critical fish habitat on lands regulated by local governments.
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Land Use Planning for Nature, Climate and Communities
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 In December 2012 the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria published a collection of environmental law reform proposals, with contributions from a variety of leading environmental lawyers, which included a number of essays from West Coast Environmental Law. This essay, by West Coast Environmental
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Municipality without people is a Jumbo of a problem
Monday, March 11, 2013 When is a municipality not a municipality? When no one lives there. West Coast Environmental Law is proud to support the West Kootenay Ecosociety in their challenge to the the Jumbo Glacier Resort Mountain Municipality – a “municipality” without people, with a mayor and council appointed
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: We can’t just roll-over when it comes to the government’s roll-over forest plans
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 Last Wednesday (Feb 20th) the Provincial government announced proposed amendments to the Forest Act that will provide for the conversion of volume-based forest licences to area-based tree farm licences. This change has the potential to increase corporate control over our forests. At West Coast we have
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Premier Clark abandons promise to ban cosmetic pesticides – now promises to regulate
Friday, February 22, 2013 Premier Christie Clark once promised a ban on cosmetic pesticides in BC, but the BC government is now promising laws that require that licensed pesticide applicators be hired for pesticide use for cosmetic purposes, "with some exceptions." West Coast, the Canadian Cancer Society, the David Suzuki
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: The case of the tankers and the missing insurance money
Thursday, January 24, 2013 Kinder Morgan’s proposal to expand its oil pipeline from Alberta’s Tarsands to Burnaby will dramatically increase the number of oil tankers passing through the Salish Sea, and increase the likelihood of a spill. But if and when there is a spill, the insurance funds available –
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Vast majority of countries moving to address climate change – but not Canada
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 The Canadian government likes to excuse its slow action on climate change by suggesting that Canada needs to wait for other countries to act. However, when elected representatives from around the world gathered in London last week to discuss how laws can help fight climate change,
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: #IdleNoMore and the future of Canada
Wednesday, January 16, 2013 Idle No More raises questions about both the past and future of Canada itself. It goes to the reality that we are a nation with a colonial history, and that we have not yet come to grips with that history. And it raises the possibility of
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: From Oolichan to Enbridge: Getting to the Heart of Cumulative Impacts Management in the Northwest
Monday, January 14, 2013 In November 2012, 170 resource management practitioners, scientists, academics, and community members came together at a conference in Smithers, BC entitled “Adding it All Up: Balancing Benefits and Effects of Resource Development”. The conference, organized by the Bulkley Valley Research Centre, focused on the issue of
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: The Smoking Gun: Who was the real author of the 2012 omnibus bills?
Friday, January 11, 2013 Kudos to Greenpeace Canada for finding something of a smoking gun exposing the role of the oil and gas industry in the gutting of Canada’s environmental laws. Greenpeace has released a letter from the Energy Framework Initiative (EFI), representing every major oil and gas industry association,
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Yukon court decision could force BC to overhaul its antiquated mining laws
Thursday, January 10, 2013 The decision of the Yukon Court of Appeal in Ross River Dena Council v. Government of the Yukon – delivered just days before the end of 2012 (on Dec 27th) – may force governments across Canada – including in BC – to rewrite their mining laws.
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Raising your voice for the Enbridge JRP (in Victoria, Vancouver and Kelowna)
Thursday, January 3, 2013 Well, tomorrow (January 4th) the Enbridge Joint Review Panel arrives in Victoria. It’s in Vancouver on January 14th, and in Kelowna on the 28th. So this is a big month in the southern part of our province for those concerned about the Enbridge Pipeline and Tanker
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: West Coast questions legality of wolf-kill contest
Monday, December 17, 2012 Should hunting clubs be able to hold wolf-killing contests, with the intent to cull the wolf population? A legal opinion we prepared for Pacific Wild on the legality of a controversial wolf-kill contest is calling the legality of the contest into doubt, and escalating concerns about
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: First Nations lead the charge against Canada-China Trade deal
Friday, December 14, 2012 First Nations in BC are playing a national leadership role in pushing back against the controversial Canada China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA), and are hooking up with some non-Aboriginal allies in that fight. A press release issued today by the Union of BC
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