Thursday, April 16, 2015 BC has had the dubious distinction of being the “Wild West for groundwater” – with no licensing of groundwater resources – for over a hundred years. The new Water Sustainability Act is poised to change this. But will the Act relieve the pressure on groundwater in
Continue readingAuthor: anjali
Environmental Law Alert Blog: The #VancouverFuelSpill, Kinder Morgan & the NEB’s crisis of legitimacy
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 Staff Counsel Eugene Kung draws links between the recent oil spill in English Bay, Kinder Morgan's pipeline proposal, and why the legitimacy of the National Energy Board is being called into question by a wide swathe of civil society and policymakers alike. Beaches continue to be
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: What’s the Drill on Gas Development in Treaty 8 Territory?
Wednesday, April 15, 2015 Staff Counsel Hannah Askew reports back from a conference in Fort St.John on gas development in Treaty 8 territory. At times inspirational and at times somber, the conference provided a forum for community members to explore solutions to cumulative effects of gas development. Last month, Executive
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Green Groups Overjoyed by New Budget Bill, Contains Everything We Ever Wanted
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 Media Release: Green groups across Canada celebrate the new federal omnibus budget bill, which makes sweeping improvements to environmental laws in Canada and rectifies all the harm done by the last two omnibus bills, Bill C-38 and Bill C-45. Federal government tables greenest budget bill
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Green Groups Overjoyed by New Budget Bill, Contains Everything We Ever Wanted
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Does the Province have a Duty to Conserve?
Wednesday, March 18, 2015 Blueberry River First Nations has launched a landmark claim against the province of BC for failing to manage the cumulative impacts of industrial development on their territory, resulting in interference with their constitutionally-protected treaty right to hunt and fish. read more
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Development, Community and Listening: Perspectives from community dialogues in Northwest BC
Tuesday, March 17, 2015 Despite a number of new proposals for LNG development in Northern BC, there has not yet been a provincial review of the cumulative impacts of these projects. West Coast is co-facilitating a series of community dialogues that brings project-affected communities together to talk about the things they
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Does RCMP anti-environmentalist rhetoric make us safer?
Monday, March 16, 2015 An RCMP memo blasting Canadian environmentalists, including West Coast, as part of a harmful “anti-Canadian petroleum movement,” does not make Canadians safer. The blatant bias of the memo undermines “the principle of legitimacy” – the idea that fair, credible law enforcement agencies can increase compliance with
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Adding to the pile: Another legal challenge regarding Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal argues BC is required to make its own decision
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 The pile of lawsuits sitting on top of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines and Tankers Project keeps getting bigger, and this time the Province of British Columbia has been dragged into the mix. In January 2015 a new legal challenge was launched by First Nations in relation
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Reporting on the Mount Polley spill: To err is human; to err and not ask why is a failure by government regulators
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 On January 30, the Panel appointed to investigate the August 4, 2014 breach of the Mount Polley Mine tailings storage facility (TSF) released its report on the causes of the dam failure. The report, which blamed the dam’s failure on poor design, made headlines across BC, as did subsequent
Continue reading