West Coast Environmental Law
Research Foundation
NewsletterWest Coast Environmental Law
Research Foundation
NewsletterThe Federal Court of Canada struck down the federal government's attempt to "frustrate" its obligation to conduct an environmental assessment of Alcan's massive Kemano II Completion hydroelectric project in North Central B.C. On May 14 Trial Division Judge Allison Walsh upheld arguments by member-groups of the Rivers Defence Coalition and the Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council that the 1984 Environmental Assessment Review Process (EARP) Guidelines Order applies to the project despite a federal Order-in-Council -- approved by Cabinet the day after the citizens filed their motions in October 1990 -- purporting to exempt the project from the Guidelines Order.
The Court quashed the Order-in-Council and also quashed the 1987 Kemano Completion Settlement Agreement in which the federal and B.C. governments agreed with Alcan to allow the project to proceed without the environmental review required by EARP. Federal approvals for the project under the Fisheries Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act were also struck down and the federal Ministers of Fisheries, Environment and Transport were ordered to comply with the EARP Guidelines Order in relation to the project.
The Court noted that, "It is not sufficient to be satisfied with a review, however extensive, performed by the Proponent of a proposal, even in cooperation with the Ministers involved, without a public assessment by an independent panel at which all interested parties may be heard." Although the Court observed that the government was satisfied about the potential effect of the project on the salmon fishery in the Nechako River, it pointed out that, "No study was apparently ever made as to the effects on fresh water fish which the Indians use, or bird or animal life, hunting for food, and potential crops in the area, all of considerable concern to occupants of the large areas involved even without any formal recognition of aboriginal rights or title."
The Coalition is represented by WCELA Honorary Director Dr. Andrew Thompson. Members of the Coalition include Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers, Save the Bulkley, Nechako Neyenkut, Gulf Trollers, Pacific Trollers, United Fisherman and Allied Workers Union, B.C. Wildlife Federation, Steelhead Society of B.C., Nechako Environmental Coalition, and Federation of B.C. Naturalists.
Alcan has said it will appeal the Court's ruling, but the federal government has not yet announced a decision on appealing. Judge Walsh's decision relies heavily on the Federal Court of Appeal's decision in the Friends of the Oldman River case that EARP is mandatory, not optional. The Supreme Court of Canada heard oral arguments on that case in March and is expected to release a decision by the Fall.
Meanwhile, the federal government is pushing forward legislation to replace EARP with an environmental review process that allows more discretion than EARP. The Speaker of the House of Commons ruled recently that Bill C-78, the proposed Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, can go straight back to a legislative committee in the current session -- bypassing first and second reading -- even though the Bill died on the order paper when Parliament perogued the previous session in early May.
The Coalition and the Tribal Council have asked the federal government to quickly appoint an independent review panel and hold public hearings on the project. The Court's decision does not automatically halt ongoing work on the $675-million project by approximately 700 construction workers. But the federal government will have to decide whether it must order a suspension of work on the project because of the Court's cancellation of the project's federal approvals, and any delay of the environmental assessment will bolster the rationale for halting the project.
The environmental representatives on the Clayoquot Sound Sustainable Development Steering Committee resigned on May 21, following a meeting of the newly-formed Clayoquot Union for the Conservation of Nature -- consisting of Friends of Clayoquot Sound, the Port Alberni Environmental Coalition, Friends of Strathcona, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and the Sierra Club of Western Canada.
Environmental representatives Steve Lawson and Dr. Jim Darling stated in their letter of resignation that the government's failure to "protect the remaining intact forest on Clayoquot Sound even for the duration of the planning process ... is pathetic and inexplicable if there is a real commitment to this process by the government." They continued, "For more than a decade the residents of Clayoquot Sound have sought to protect the natural environment that supports them. Legal challenges have been made, local organizations and councils have lobbied in good faith for meaningful change, and communities have committed incalculable time and energy to a myriad of land use planning processes -- all to no avail. Destructive logging practices continue at the same rate and not an acre of forest has been permanently protected. There is enormous frustration building with the realization that no matter what process is undertaken, no significant change occurs. ... It would be misleading and irresponsible for us to lend credence to the public perception that participation in the strategy development process by environmental representatives ensures environmental and conservation concerns are being addressed. They are not."
As reported in the last Newsletter, the meeting was funded by the EDRF to allow environmentalists to decide whether or not to continue to participate in the newly-formed Steering Committee, the successor to the ill-fated Clayoquot Sound Sustainable Development Task Force. The Task Force was appointed in 1989 to prepare a sustainable development strategy for the Tofino area on the west coast of Vancouver Island. But the Task Force reported in January of this year that it had been unable to produce a strategy because it had been preoccupied with the short-term disputes over company plans for clearcut logging. It recommended that the Steering Committee be formed to create the strategy without being saddled with solving short-term disputes, with the proviso that government decisions on logging plans should not foreclose sustainable development options.
The environmentalists' decision to withdraw from the Steering Committee was due primarily to a recent government decision to allow logging to proceed in one area and to postpone a decision on short-term preservation of two other unlogged areas.
The Bridge Creek-Canim Lake Anti-Pollution Committee received an EDRF grant to retain lawyer Murray Rankin to resolve the pollution problems stemming from a sewage lagoon operated by the Municipality of 100 Mile House. On March 1, 1991, the dyke of the municipal sewage lagoon failed and over 5 million gallons of virtually untreated sewage spilled into Bridge Creek, which empties into Canim Lake. The Committee's goal is to have the sewage lagoon moved away from the Creek. The Committee was originally formed in 1967 by area residents who were concerned about the construction of the lagoon within their watershed.
Organizations named in bold have received EDRF grants. The West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund is used to help individuals and groups resolve environmental disputes through participation in litigation, environmental assessments, administrative tribunals and alternative dispute resolution. Contact WCELA for information.
REMINDER: West Coast Environmental Law's Annual General Meeting & Banquet will be held on Tuesday, June 18th, at the Flamingo House Restaurant, 3489 Fraser Street, Vancouver. We are delighted to have Dr. Fred Bunnell, Professor of Biology (UBC) as our keynote speaker. Tickets for the banquet and meeting are $29 -- please call our office (684-7378) for reservations. Hope to see you at the banquet!
Berg v. Attorney General for British Columbia, Vancouver Registry No. A910446, B.C. Supreme Court, March 4, 1991. Mr. Justice Thackray held that the operators of a wilderness tourist lodge -- represented by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund -- had legal standing and that the B.C. Ministry of Forests improperly adopted a Pre-Harvest Silviculture Prescription without a proper opportunity for public input. The Court also held that if a PHSP is quashed then any related cutting permits must also fail. In this case, however, the Court exercised its discretion not to stop the logging by Takla because it was aimed at a beetle infestation.
Case Comment: This is the first case to consider the Forest Act and Silviculture Regulation provisions respecting PHSPs. These are the only provisions in the legislation expressly dealing with the right of the public to view and comment on logging plans prior to their approval. As a result, PHSPs are important documents for citizens concerned with the manner in which logging occurs in a given area. The Regulation requires that the PHSP identify the actions to be taken by a licensee to accommodate non-timber resources.
-- Mark Haddock (for further information, contact the Sierra Legal Defence Fund at (604) 685-5618).
Environment Minister Dave Mercier says B.C. plans to develop a Clean Air Strategy for the province over the next 12 months. In his address to a Vancouver conference kicking off the process on April 30, the Minister promised public consultation in developing the strategy.
Conference speakers and panels addressed global issues such as atmospheric change, regional issues such as transportation, and local issues such as industrial emissions. On the second day of the conference, small discussion groups formulated specific recommendations that will form part of the Conference Proceedings. WCELA has asked that the next step toward the Strategy be the circulation of a discussion document for public consultation in the near future.
-- by Bill Andrews, from a speech to a workshop of the newly-formed Environmental Interest Group at the joint conference of the B.C. Library Association and the B.C. Library Trustees' Association in Vancouver in April.
In nature, there are two basic ways in which organisms respond to challenges: the cooperative approach or the competitive approach. Some creatures cooperate with their neighbours; other creatures eat their neighbours!
This applies to humans too. But we are in a period of history characterized by an extreme imbalance in favour of the competitive, power-oriented approach to problem solving -- especially in the world outside of the home. War, political conflict, takeovers, trade wars, strikes, lockouts -- it's as if the world is dominated by people with the mentalities of terrified 13 year-old boys. I believe this is true, even though virtually everyone who is acting this way sees himself or herself as acting quite reasonably given the situation they are confronted with.
These aggressive attitudes also characterize our main way of relating to our environment -- we try to control it, to manage it. Unfortunately, this is turning out to be a gigantic feat of self-deception. The burning of fossil fuels -- literally the fuel of the industrial revolution -- is suddenly discovered to be raising the very temperature of our atmosphere, seas, lakes and land. The potential consequences can only be described as alarming.
It would have been bad enough to have deliberately caused global warming by deciding to have an industrial revolution. But we didn't even know about global warming until we had already caused it. What other inadvertent environmental blunder will we discover next?
It is past time for a resurgence of the cooperative, nurturing approach to dealing with our problems. Not a total replacement of the competitive approach, but a shift back to a better balance. The powerful must find their humility, and seek help in coping with all our seemingly intractable problems. All of us need to be more assertive about using our cooperative problem-solving skills. We need to heal ourselves and others in our communities, local and global.
We also need to tone down -- or smarten up -- the competitive approach, to turn wars into conferences, to turn political mudslinging into policy debates.
The common denominator between smartening up the competitive approach and re-emphasizing the cooperative approach is information. Accurate, up-to-date, affordable information can help people compete for acceptance of good ideas, and it can also help people help each other to solve mutual problems.
But information alone is not enough. Remember the difference between information and wisdom -- the definition of information
Is that it is not definable, the definition of wisdom is knowing what to do with information!
The Changing Atmosphere: Strategies for Reducing CO
Water Quality Plan -- 1990, Monitoring and Objectives, Fraser River Estuary Management Program, Revised Draft, April, 1991: proposes a $3.7 million monitoring program to gauge compliance with Water Quality Objectives in the Fraser River Estuary. Contact: S. Samis, FREMP Water Quality Standing Committee, 708 Clarkson Street, New Westminster, B.C., V3M 1E2, phone: 525-1047.
The Structure of the British Columbia Economy: A Land Use Perspective, by the Planning and Statistics Division, Ministry of Finance and Corporate Relations, prepared for the B.C. Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, March, 1991: analyzes the B.C. economy and finds that natural resource industries `drive' the provincial economy although the service sector has risen from 60% to 67.7% of GDP between 1961 and 1989.
Energy Market Update, Vol 3, No 1. Published quarterly by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C., V8V 1X4. Phone: 387-5178. Free of charge.
Out of Balance, The Risks of Irreversible Climate Change, Part III of "Our Changing Atmosphere" Series, The House of Commons Standing Com- mittee on Environment, March, 1991: a final report making three main conclusions: (1) global warming has been proved scientifically; (2) it is an inevitable and continuing consequence of past and present patterns of human activity; and (3) it represents a severe threat to both Canada and the planet as a whole. The report includes numerous recommend-ations for reducing greenhouse gases, with energy efficiency as the first priority. Available from the Canadian Government Publishing Center, Supply and Services Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0S9.
The State of Forestry in Canada: 1990 Report to Parliament. Useful statistics about forestry and information on forestry related issues. Free of charge from Forestry Canada, Corporate and Public Affairs, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 1G5.
WCELRF Newsletter, copyright 1991, is published by the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation. This issue was produced by Bill Andrews (editor), Morgan Ashbridge, Ellen Halliday, Ann Hillyer, Catherine Ludgate, Susan Moor, Denice Regnier, and Calvin Sandborn. Cover graphic courtesy of Friends of the Earth International. Graphic on page 3 credit unknown. Subscription information is on page 3. WCELRF does research and education and maintains an environmental law library. The West Coast Environmental Law Association provides legal representation and promotes law reform. The mission of WCELRF and WCELA is to provide legal services to protect the environment and to foster public participation in environmental decision-making. We are grateful to the Law Foundation of British Columbia for core funding of the West Coast Environmental Law Association and West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation. Donations to WCELRF are tax creditable.
We would like to express our appreciation to the following new members and donors: John & Dorie Andrews, John Artamenko, North Shore SPEC, Barry Baldwin, E.L Bayliff, Erick Baziw, Kevin Bell, Greg Blue, Christopher Boulton, Joe Bryant, Mae Burrows, CPU -- Region IV, L. Clark, Consumer & Corporate Affairs, Robert & Ruth Ann Darnall, Cherry Davies, Gordon Ellison, E. Feller, Elizabeth Freyman, Raymond Fung, Kenneth Grant, Juergen Hansen, Kathy Harrison, Christopher Harvey, Carla Hotel, Lesley Krainer, Kwakiutl Territorial Fisheries Commission, R. Hector MacKay-Dunn, Ray Marriner, Gregory McDade, Brett McGillivray, J. Medd, Rozlynne Mitchell, E.A. Olafson, Mary Reid, Patrice Rother, Red Mountain Residents' Association, Jane Rush-LeBlanc, Paul Sanborn, Ray Schachter, Sentinel Secondary School, William Storey, Anne Thompson, Glen Thompson, Henry Waldock, Elizabeth Wallach, David Weymer, and Roberta Wohl.
West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation 1001 - 207 West Hastings Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7 Canada
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