West Coast Environmental Law
Research Foundation
NewsletterWest Coast Environmental Law
Research Foundation
NewsletterPublic modem access to WCELRF's new Environmental Legal Information Base (ELIB) is now available. With a computer and a modem, anyone can dial 684-2483 and follow simple instructions to see ELIB on the screen. From there, one can explore over 30 megabytes of environmental and legal information, using "jump links" and virtually instantaeous full-word searching.
ELIB is growing rapidly, and now includes the full text of B.C. environmental statutes, dozens of books, reports and briefs, the newsletter of the B.C. Environmental Network, a special collection on environmental assessment, references to hundreds of other online sources of related information, the card catalogue for WCELRF's extensive hardcopy collection, and an interactive feature on selecting legal tools for protecting private land.
ELIB is an electronic system for providing public access to environmental legal information in order to help protect the environment of British Columbia and the world.
We gratefully acknowledge financial support for the Electronic Crossroads project from: the British Columbia Ministry of Environment; the federal Environmental Innovations Program; the Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office; the Notary Foundation of British Columbia; the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia; the VanCity Community Fund; and the Vancouver Foundation.
West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation and Association are grateful for core funding from the Law Foundation of British Columbia.
ELIB would not have been possible without the dedicated and enthusiastic contributions of the following staff: Morgan Ashbridge, Ann Hillyer, Catherine Ludgate, Linda Nowlan, Denice Regnier, Chris Rolfe, Kim Stanton; and contract personnel: barb findlay, lawyer; Glenna Forrest, bookkeeping; Chris Heald, computer applications; Kelly Lamorie, library technician; Nicolas Maftei, Gencat consultant; Slobodan Milojkovic; librarian, computer applications; Patrick Roy, computer consulting; Susan Safyan, consulting librarian; Shelley Tegart, consulting librarian; Dave Watson, Internet consultant; and Bill Andrews, project manager.
The following are the current and anticipated types of users of ELIB:
ELIB is designed to accomodate both (a) novices and experts in the use of the ELIB system and (b) novices and experts in the legal and environmental information located in or referenced in the ELIB system.
Technically, ELIB is a large "hypertext file" (text with jump links to other places in the text) in Folio Views format.
Unseen to the user -- but vitally important to ELIB -- is a card catalogue database in Gencat software produced by Eloquent Systems in North Vancouver. This catalogue includes entries not only for WCELRF's hardcopy library items but also for each of the computerized documents in ELIB and for sources of computerized environmental legal information not located at West Coast (bulletin boards, Internet resources, etc.).
The Gencat software is uniquely suited to this task because each record can have different fields (corresponding to the different types of items -- there is no "author" of a bulletin board, for example) and because items can be linked to one another (this conference proceedings includes these papers, this book refers to that legal case, etc.).
West Coast has configured Gencat to produce an electronic file of the catalogue data along with codes correponding to connections between items. To produce ELIB, a computer program then modifies this file by replacing these codes with Folio Views codes and by adding additional Folio Views codes to make jump links from catalogue entries to the full text documents. The resulting file is compiled together with files containing the full text of documents into one large Folio Views "infobase" file.
The infobase file can be used by Views for DOS, Views for Windows, or a very much simpler program called Viewer (for DOS -- the one users see for ELIB by modem -- or for Windows). MacIntosh versions are said to be in the works.
GIVE ELIB A CALL — (604) 684-2483
To use ELIB, you must have a computer, a modem and a communications program that supports a doorway mode. What is a doorway mode? Well, unlike a regular menu-driven BBS, ELIB Online lets you control a full-screen text browser -- like a word processor. But your communications package must be able to send ALL keystrokes to our computer. For example, some communications programs use the PageUp key to start a file transfer. But PageUp is used in ELIB to move the cursor up one screen at a time. In doorway mode, a communications program will send the PageUp keypress over the modem, instead of treating it as a command to start a file transfer.
If you don't know whether your communications program has a doorway mode, you can download a shareware communications program -- Telix -- from ELIB Online. With Telix, you can turn doorway mode on or off by pressing ALT "=".
Information for Conservation is an electronic collection of legal and environmental materials regarding the voluntary protection of private land in British Columbia. The collection includes an interactive feature on selecting legal tools for protecting private land, the full text of WCELRF's new book Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Legal Tools for the Voluntary Protection of Private Land in British Columbia, the full text of dozens of related statutes and documents, and catalogue references to other sources of relevant information. Funded by the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia, the Information for Conservation project was originally focused on a computer disk package. However, it has now been decided to focus initially on modem access to the infobase.
1. Broader public access
WCELRF is working with bulletin boards such as the Canadian Earthcare Society's ERECS BBS and Environment Canada's EC-INFO BBS to put a copies of ELIB on these systems. EC-INFO allows users to enter the BBS from the Internet -- a major "window on the world." In the medium term, WCELRF is working toward converting ELIB into the Internet's hypertext format (World Wide Web), which would allow ELIB users to jump directly to other places on the Internet and for computer users around the world to jump directly to ELIB.
WCELRF is planning a number of projects that will have as either their primary or their secondary objective the expansion and updating of ELIB in a particular subject area. For example,
ELIBHome Page
Welcome to the ELIBHome Page <WCELRF is working with the B.C. Institute of Technology to put environmental law course materials into ELIB for use by professionals enrolled in the environmental management of real estate assets program. Possible additional topics include biodiversity, environmental assessment and land use planning. Each of these projects includes creating new interactive, user-driven "interfaces", to make it even easier for users to find what they want as quickly as possible.
ELIB will be demonstrated at the annual meeting of the B.C. Environmental Network in Victoria, B.C., April 30 to May 1. There will be lots of opportunity for hands-on training. Let us know if you want to be informed about other ELIB training sessions.
Help! Send Info!
If you or your group has information in electronic form that would be of use to people working to protect the environment -- and you want to make it publicly available for free for non-commercial purposes -- just send it to us on a disk or give us a call about it. We can handle most common formats.
Canadian Water, Canada's Trade Obligations and B.C. Water Policy
Few legal interpretations have been as hot political issues or obscured in as much rhetoric. The question of whether Canadian trade obligations with the United States and more recently Mexico give the U.S. and Mexico access to Canadian water strikes a sensitive chord among Canadians. The spectre of thirsty Americans or Mexicans being given a right to drain Canada's most plentiful resource has assured this issue remains current. Unfortunately, despite all the attention, the political nature of the issue has kept the water muddy.
Debates over whether water is "in" or "out" of the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA") and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement ("CUSFTA"), and debates over whether the Americans can "force the tap open" really depend on interpretation of relatively technical and sometimes obscure provisions. This article attempts to give a simple review of what the issues are.
The first issue is whether or not the two trade deals apply to water. The answer is "it depends". The trade deals apply to goods. "Goods" in the trade deals mean the same thing as goods or "products" under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ("GATT"). Although GATT has been usually applied to goods which are commercially traded there is no clear answer as to when something becomes a good. The issue of whether water is a good for the purposes of the trade agreements has been muddied by references to whether all forms of water or only bottled water are covered in GATT's commodity coding system. However, the commodity coding system is generally seen by trade experts as being a standard basis for negotiating tariff reductions on different goods, not as a basis for defining what is or is not a product or good.
It is clear that water in its natural state, in aquifers, lakes and rivers is not a good since it has not entered commerce. This was reiterated in the December 1993 "clarification" of NAFTA signed by Canada, Mexico and the United States which Prime Minister Chretien insisted on in December as a condition of implementing NAFTA.
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The clarification, however, did little if anything to resolve the more important issue of when water does become a good under NAFTA or CUSFTA. The issue that remains unresolved is whether or not water is a good once it is dammed or diverted into pipelines, canals or distribution systems. While the December 1993 clarification stated that water in its natural state in reservoirs was not a good, it is unresolved whether it becomes a good once dammed or diverted, only if prices are charged for it, or only if sold on a commercial basis.
The December 1993 clarification of NAFTA also failed to provide any clarification of what rights Americans have to Canadian water that is a good. For water that is a good under NAFTA and CUSFTA, any restrictions on export, including export quotas, export licences, and minimum export prices, must comply with GATT Article XX(g). Moreover, NAFTA generally prohibits the use of export taxes (unless equal taxes are applied domestically).
While GATT Article XX(g) allows export restrictions relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources, these measures are only allowable if they are "made effective in conjunction with restrictions on domestic production or consumption". However, the existence of restrictions on domestic production and consumption of water in the form of requirements for Water Act licences does not mean that a water export ban will necessarily be acceptable under GATT and CUSFTA. CUSFTA and GATT trade panels have said that restrictions on export must be restrictions which Canada would be willing to impose on its own nationals for conservation purposes and the export restriction must be primarily aimed at rendering the domestic restrictions effective.
Also, even if Canadian water export restrictions are permissible as being in relation to conservation of natural resources, they will only be allowed under CUSFTA and NAFTA if the resulting reduction in the level of water available to Americans is proportionate to the overall drop in the Canadian supply of water which is a good. In other words, once the tap is open it cannot be closed.
All of this means that:
If Canada does not want to be locked into exporting bulk water to the United States, the federal government should re-introduce legislation banning large scale diversions or shipping of water to other countries, and tightly regulating smaller shipments. Once commercial exports begin water is clearly a product, and, at best, Canada will only be able to reduce exports in conjunction with equal percentage reductions in Canada.
Restrictions on water exports may fail unless they are applied in the context of strong domestic restrictions on water diversions and use. Strong domestic restrictions will be an indication that the export restrictions are in relation to conservation and that they are needed to make the domestic restrictions effective in conserving water. Thus, the provinces should review water legislation to ensure that it would support a federal ban.
These prescriptions for action underline the need for reform of provincial water regulation. Under the current British Columbia Water Act applications for water licences are based on availability of water, impact on other licensees, and instream fisheries and habitat requirements. Licenses define the purpose for which the water is to be used (thus a license for irrigation of a B.C. farm would not allow the B.C. farmer to sell to the United States).
The government of British Columbia has proposed that amendments to the Water Act be introduced which enshrine existing criteria as well as requiring compliance with approved water management plans and use of best available conservation technology. The government has also proposed use of water pricing as an incentive for conservation.
Other additional amendments include:
All of these measures, even in the absence of federal legislation, could significantly reduce the practical impact of any rights to British Columbia's water which other nations might have under trade law.
B.C. Minister of Environment Moe Sihota has stated that "water export is a major concern to the people of British Columbia. The [December clarification] provides little comfort for the province." Sihota has also called for the federal government to ban exports. WCELA supports this proposal, but the B.C. government must also take what action it can to avoid being tied into water exports in the future. The above amendments to the Water Act are important if we want to effectively ban the export of our water.
A more detailed version of this article with footnotes is available from the West Coast Environmental Law Association. Please contact Chris Rolfe at WCELA if you have any questions.
WCELRF Newsletter copyright 1994, is published by the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation. This issue was produced by Bill Andrews, Morgan Ashbridge, Glenna Forrest, Chris Heald, Ann Hillyer, Catherine Ludgate, Denice Regnier, Chris Rolfe, and Kim Stanton. Subscription information is below. West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation does research and education and maintains an environmental law library. West Coast Environmental Law Association provides legal representation and promotes law reform. The mission of West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation and West Coast Environmental Law Association 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 West Coast Environmental Law Association and West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation. Donations to West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation are tax creditable.