West Coast EnvironmentalLaw REVIEW
Public Interest Environmental Law for British Columbia
West Coast EnvironmentalIt seems
that our optimism about finding a greener path has faded since
the first Earth Day 25 years ago. Today, our collective attention
turns to a fixation with economic ills, to concerns about crime,
to the mysteries of the information highway.
Yet after 25 years it's apparent that we face enormous environmental problems - problems that offer no quick fix - and that our response to those challenges is still inadequate to reverse the trends:
But the explosion of environmental awareness during the past quarter century has not been a waste of time. One important achievement has been to create laws and regulations to protect the environment - tools that did not exist 25 years ago. But just as the ecosystem is threatened, so these valuable legal tools appear threatened today.
Earth Day is a good time to remind ourselves about what can be done. One practical thing we need to do is resist regressive moves to weaken the laws created in the last 25 years to protect the Earth from ecologically destructive human activities. And we need to work for new legal tools to tackle the more troubling issues - curbing climate change, protecting biodiversity and endangered species, andcontaining urban sprawl.
So why, when we know the problems are so serious, are there moves to dismantle some of the laws that are meant to save us from environmental catastrophe? Why are world leaders dodging the climate crisis by putting off until 1997 setting targets - and creating laws to meet those targets - for cutting greenhouse gas emissions?
At a time when deregulation is fashionable among even those who have voiced their commitment to protecting the environment, we need to remember that the rules of nature alone were not enough to prevent the ecological harm already done.
Now is not the time to dump laws to protect the environment - or shy away from much-needed new ones - in the name of efficiency or some vague notions about other possible short-term benefits. Let's remember that the rules are a response to our failure as a species to be able to predict and prevent the catastrophic impacts of human excesses. And even the existing rules don't deal with all the issues we must face.
We need to rekindle our hope and strengthen our commitment to a sustainable future. Earth Day reminds us to focus that hope and awareness on the tangible things that we need to do - like protecting and strengthening our environmental laws so that they can do the job of protecting the Earth - for us and for generations to come.
This is the text of a Commentary that Ann Hillyer, Staff Counsel, delivered on CBC Radio on April 21, 1995.
Clean Vehicles: West Coast (WCELA) lawyers are involved in the current initiative of the B.C. Government to improve air quality for British Columbia. WCELA lawyers have been working on the government's proposal to adopt low and zero emission standards for new vehicles. Linda Nowlan is a member of the Deputy Minister's Task Force on clean vehicles, and works with representatives from the auto industry, government, and other interested parties to develop these new regulations which are promised for the spring of 1995.
Air Quality Advisory Committee: WCELA lawyers sit as members of the Greater Vancouver Regional District Air Quality Advisory Committee, a multi-stakeholder group committed to implementing an ambitious air quality management plan designed to clear the air in North America's fastest growing metropolitan region.
The methods of forestry such as clearcutting, as well as the ever increasing rates of timber harvesting in B.C., have provoked heated controversies in recent years, particularly when logging has been carried out in spectacular and environmentally critical old growth forests. The province has moved to correct some of the extremely harmful past practices with the enactment of new forest practices laws and land use policies, which, while not ideal, are a much needed step in the right direction. One of the most innovative institutional structures created to address forest problems is Forest Renewal B.C., a Crown corporation with the mandate to use higher stumpage fees from forest companies to restore the environment, increase employment and create new economic opportunities from B.C.'s forests. WCELA staff lawyer Ann Hillyer is a Director of Forest Renewal B.C. and chairs the Environment Committee, as well as sitting on the Executive Committee. Environmentalists and industry representatives alike believe that Forest Renewal B.C. will play a major role in restoring public confidence in the way this valuable resource is managed.
West Coast participates in the general Advisory Group of the Environmental Mining Council of B.C., a coalition of environmental groups who aims to ensure that mining activity within the province is sustainable. Staff lawyers are also currently involved in the Mine Reclamation Security Committee, a multi-stakeholder group seeking ways to improve the current system for setting security to ensure that enough funds are available to clean up mines once mining activity has finished. A particular concern in B.C. is the problem of acid mine drainage, and the Committee will look at whether current reclamation bonds and security posted for these types of mines is adequate to ensure their clean up.
Oil Spills: The marine coast of British Columbia is spectacular, but fragile. Marine spills are on the rise, and recent changes to American laws regarding oil pollution could mean increased tanker traffic through the Inside Passage along the coastline of B.C. Staff lawyer Linda Nowlan sits on the B.C. Citizen's Advisory Committee on Oil Spill Prevention. She and the other activists, industry and Native committee members are holding a series of forums in coastal areas around the province of British Columbia to obtain public input on oil spill response and prevention. The Committee will produce an annual report detailing the progress that all levels of government and industry are making towards ensuring that effective spill prevention measures are in place.
WCELA promotes Canada's participation in the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the commitment of both federal and provincial governments to produce biodiversity strategies. West Coast was one of a number of environmental law groups who commented on the federal biodiversity strategy. West Coast lawyers also represent environmental groups concerned with threats to species and their habitats. Staff lawyer Linda Nowlan acts as counsel to the B.C. Endangered Species Coalition, which has been lobbying the provincial government for improved legal protection for species and habitats.
WCELA lawyers have actively participated in the development of the new national Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the the first comprehensive British Columbia Environmental Assessment Act. With both pieces of legislation, WCELA lawyers worked to ensure that the new assessment procedures applied to a broad range of projects and activities. The regulations defining the scope of the laws' application were key. Executive Director Bill Andrews worked on the federal Regulation Advisory Committee, and staff lawyer Ann Hillyer worked on the provincial Key Stakeholders Group. WCELA is also engaged in disseminating information about the new laws to environmental groups through workshops, lectures and publications.
REGULATORY REFORMReform fever swept across Canada this past year, although not
with the same fervour as in the U.S. Executive Director Bill
Andrews challenged the federal government's proposed reforms contained
in two critical initiatives: the "harmonization" of
federal and provincial laws (which would, if implemented as planned,
have dramatically downsized the federal government's role in environmental
protection) and the ominously titled Regulatory Efficiency
Act, designed to allow corporations to bypass the regulatory
process through the use of compliance agreements. Both initiatives
have been substantially modified as the result of input from the
environmental community.
WCELA reviewed a claim by a First Nations group in the Yukon concerning possible environmental damage from pesticide spraying over their land in the 1950s and 1960s. The U.S. Army conducted the spraying over its pipeline which crossed Canadian territory en route to Alaska. The concern arose after soil testing revealed dioxin contamination which experts linked to the pesticides that were used. Staff lawyer Linda Nowlan examined the latest literature on dioxins, including the EPA reassessment, as well as the regulatory scheme and general state of knowledge about pesticides at the time of the spraying. The issue of environmental jusice also arose because of the possible difference in treatment of white and First Nations communities in relation to notification of health and environmental hazards associated with the spraying.
Trade and the Environment: West Coast lawyer Chris Rolfe has been working to ensure that environmental protection is not forgotten when negotiating international and even domestic trade agreements. Chris has written on the impact of the Canada/U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the Canadian Internal Trade Agreement.
North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation: WCELA is one of two Canadian partners in a project with the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation to complete a summary of environmental laws of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The summary is being completed by environmental non-governmental organizations in all three countries and WCELA lawyers Bill Andrews and Linda Nowlan are working on the project. The summary will be available on-line and will be useful to citizens in all three countries to monitor and promote environmental legal protection.
Economic Instruments for Environmental Protection: Growing interest in the use of market forces to protect the environment has prompted West Coast to become involved in this rapidly growing area of environmental legal research and advocacy. West Coast lawyers authored a report on economic instruments and the environment and participated in the federal government's task force on economic instruments and disincentives to sound environmental practice. The use of discharge fees, tradable emission permits, and deposit refund systems, for example, cannot replace the need for strong environmental regulation, but can provide a useful complement to strong legal tools and effective enforcement by providing the right signals to business to engage in pollution prevention.
ELIB on the Internet: Public access to environmental legal information has been the focus of West Coast's Environmental Legal Information Base. WCELA Executive Director Bill Andrews has been developing this electronic database. It is comprised of West Coast's books, law reform briefs, newletters and annual reports, selected environmental statutes, decisions of the Environmental Appeal Board, the newsletters of the B.C. Environmental Network, as well as a comprehensive Internet hotlist of legal and environmental information from around the world. This important public resource is freely available at our WWW site: http://vcn.bc.ca/wcel/.
The West Coast Environmental Law Association (the Association) began as the Vancouver Environmental Law Centre in the summer of 1974, at the initiative of University of British Columbia law students. It provided a legal advisory service for the citizens of British Columbia regarding environmental problems. The Centre was incorporated as a Society in 1975, and assumed its present name, the West Coast Environmental Law Association, later in the same year.
During 1975 and 1976, the Association began emphasizing environmental legal education and expanded its legal advisory and representation programs throughout the province. In 1977, the Association's educational activities were assumed by the newly-incorporated West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation (the Research Foundation), a registered charitable organization.
Since 1977, the Association and Research Foundation have continued to grow. In 1989 the West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund was established. Its purpose is to promote the rational resolution of environmental disputes in B.C. by providing financial assistance to concerned citizens for litigation, experts' fees, and alternative methods of dispute resolution, such as multi-sector negotiations. Since its inception, the Fund has given away almost a million dollars to help solve environmental problems and has provided assistance to hundreds of environmental groups and citizen activists throughout the province.
Today, the West Coast Environmental Law organizations actively carry on key legal advisory, representative, consultative and educational services for the British Columbia public.
MISSION STATEMENT: The mission of the Association and the Research Foundation is to provide legal services, research and education to promote protection of the environment and public participation in environmental decision-making.
LEGAL STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: The organizations' legal strategic objectives are to:
ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: The organizations' environmental strategic objectives are to:
PROGRAMS: The Association and the Research Foundation provide services in five program areas:
WCELRF Newsletter (ISSN #0715-4275), copyright
1995, is published by the West Coast Environmental Law Research
Foundation. This issue was produced by Bill Andrews, Morgan Ashbridge,
Chris Heald, Ann Hillyer, Patricia Houlihan, Catherine Ludgate,
Alexandra Melnyk and Linda Nowlan. 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.