Environmental Law & Policy

Groups appeal for end to dismantling of environmental law

Assessment law loopholes need to be closed, not created

OTTAWA — Canada’s environmental assessment law should be reformed through a scheduled parliamentary review, not weakened through piecemeal amendments buried in a budget bill, Ecojustice and Sierra Club Canada said today.

“Parliament should close loopholes in environmental laws, not create new ones to suit the tar sands and other extractive industries,” said Stephen Hazell, Ecojustice lawyer. “The Senate Finance Committee has an opportunity to avoid creating new legal loopholes and prevent catastrophes such as Deepwater Horizon from happening in Canada.” Read More

Guilty verdict in Syncrude case applauded

CALGARY — Alberta provincial court’s guilty verdict in the Syncrude ducks case confirms the need to eliminate toxic tailings ponds and the risks they pose, Ecojustice said today. 

 

Some 1,600 ducks died after landing in a Syncrude tailings pond in April 2008. The pond’s bird deterrent systems were not in place at the time. Read More

AEN members react to Syncrude duck death verdict

AEN members weighed in on Friday's guilty verdict in the Syncrude ducks case. Both Sierra Club Canada and Ecojustice applauded the verdict, suggesting that the verdict further confirms the need to eliminate the toxic tailings ponds. The Pembina Institute's Simon Dyer, while calling the verdict "significant" and "positive", raises questions about the deterrent value and impact of the verdict in the broader context of the oil sands tailings ponds:

Since the incident, the amount of tailings (the toxic liquid waste produced by the oil sands extraction process) has steadily increased in volume by 200 million litres, or 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools, every day to now cover an area of 170 km2. It raises the question: Did the ducks die in vain?

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Sierra Club Canada applauds Syncrude court ruling

OTTAWA – Syncrude Canada Ltd. was found guilty today on federal and provincial charges and may now face fines of up to $800 000.

“It is great to see Syncrude charged as guilty under federal and provincial laws," said Sheila Muxlow, Interim Director of Sierra Club Prairie. "I just hope the federal and provincial governments see that it's time to shut these projects down and begin the transition towards a clean, green, renewable energy economy." Read More

ELC on Environmental Bill of Rights and proposed Wastewater Regulations

The Environmental Law Centre posts on a couple of recent developments. Adam Driedzic posts on Bill C-469: An Act to establish a Canadian Environmental Bill of Rights, which recently passed second reading in the House of Commons.

Laura Bowman comments on proposed wastewater regulations under the Fisheries Act.

There is no assurance from regulators that public health and the environment will be adequately protected while municipalities take 10-30 years to comply.  These timelines are not consistent with those ordered by the courts on the rare occasions when municipalities have been charged and convicted.

New federal climate plan admits minimal action on emissions

Matthew Bramley, Climate Change Director of the Pembina Institute, critiques Environment Canada's recently released annual Climate Change Plan:

Sadly, this report confirms that the Harper government is neither implementing nor planning to implement any policies to substantially reduce Canada's greenhouse gas pollution. In the face of urgent calls for action coming from the world's most authoritative scientific bodies and ambitious policies in some of Canada's peer countries, this shows an astonishing failure to grasp what's at stake.

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Bill C-311 the Climate Change Accountability Act: action or aspiration?

The Environmental Law Centre's Laura Bowman writes that the Climate Change Accountability Act suffers from some of the same "problematic legal issues" that led to the failure of the earlier Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act. In the case of Friends of the Earth v. Canada, (2008 FC 1183, (T.D.) appeal dismissed 2009 FCA 297) a Federal Court found that the earlier act, unenforceable and, in Bowman's words, "too general in nature to have the true force of law". Bowman argues that:

Parliamentarians and activists need to be bolder in addressing climate change, by putting forward specific measures instead of emission targets without any means of achieving them.

And that:

Bill C-311, riding on a wave of political apathy, represents a failure to take risks on real measures.  Targets are the ends, but legislators need to be prepared to provide the means, and soon.

 

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Harper plays wallflower on climate

The Pembina Institute's Clare Demerse writes about the Harper government's goal to "harmonize" our climate policy with that of the United States; and compares Canada's climate policy to a character from a romantic comedy — "the girl so afraid of being alone that she'll settle for anyone." Read More

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