The Year in Review
Message from the President
West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL)
West Coast Environmental Law Association (WCELA)
West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund Society (EDRF)
West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation (WCELRF)
Financial Highlights
Sponsors and Donors
About West Coast Environmental Law

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The past year has seen West Coast continue to grow and change. Both longtime Executive Director Bill Andrews and staff counsel Ann Hillyer resigned from the organization. We thank Bill and Ann for their many years of service to West Coast, and wish them both well with their new legal practices. New staff include Kate Smallwood, the Coordinator for the BC Endangered Species Coalition, (a project administered by West Coast) and Andrea Finch, a staff contract lawyer.

Amidst all these changes, we met the increasing demand for public interest environmental legal services. More and more groups and concerned citizens use our free summary advice service. We answer environmental legal questions from members of the public around the province. The Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund, which provides grants for lawyers and other professionals to assist community groups to resolve local environmental disputes, made numerous valuable contributions to court cases, tribunal hearings, and alternative dispute resolution processes.

We were involved in many multi-stakeholder processes addressing new environmental legislation at the federal and provincial levels. Notable examples over the past year include the ongoing development of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the draft Canada Endangered Species Protection Act (which was not passed this year, despite much effort), the ongoing work of the BC Greenhouse Gas Forum, the long-awaited BC Contaminated Sites Regulations, and the BC Fish Protection Act.

West Coast staff lawyers were involved in two major exciting law reform campaigns on endangered species and climate change. More details on these initiatives are found later in this report. Our activities in legal research and legal education produced a new publication, the Citizen's Guide to Protecting Wetlands, a workshop on urban stream protection, and an ongoing series of workshops on conservation covenants.

Our work with other environmental groups and networks around the province and across the country also continued in 1996-97. West Coast is a member of the Climate Change Action Network, the BC Habitat Protection Council, the Environmental Mining Council of BC, the BC Endangered Species Coalition, and the Lower Fraser Valley Air Quality Advisory Committee among others.

While the major focus of our work is on the development of stronger environmental laws at the federal and provincial levels, increasingly we are working at both a more local and a more international level. Environmental issues permeate every sphere of activity in society today. West Coast's work on urban streams, urban air quality, protection of private land (which is often found in urban land in BC), and planning law all highlight our growing expertise in the field of urban environmental issues. At the same time, we have been more active on the international front, as delegates to the Third Conference of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention, the 1997 Meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Meeting of the Parties to the Basel Convention in Geneva, and as advocates of effective binding international commitments under the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Over the coming year, we will continue to rely on our great staff and Board of Directors, as well as our members and supporters. We hope to expand our work even further.

THE WEST COAST TRADITIONS

West Coast Environmental Law is approaching its 25^th birthday. Twenty-five years is a long period of time, especially for environmental groups. During this time, we have learned what works. We are proud of lessons learned, aspirations realized, and new environmental regimes introduced as a result of our efforts. Our experience will serve us well in the coming year.

Our Tradition of Careful Work

West Coast has an enviable reputation for thoughtful and well-reasoned advocacy. Our reputation has opened legislators' doors which in turn has led to law reform. Environmental agencies — including some which we have strongly criticized in the past — rely on our substantive analysis. During the last year, for example, the provincial government contracted with us to analyze the complex constitutional and regulatory framework governing fish and later incorporated some of our advice into the new Fish Protection Act.

Bill Andrews had a clear vision that excellence in West Coast's analysis and advocacy is a prerequisite to successful law reform and public education. Ann Hillyer also exacted a high standard from her work, and was committed to West Coast's critical role as an honest broker in multistakeholder negotiations. Bill and Ann have left a legacy which is very evident in the high quality of work of current staff. The board intends to maintain this tradition. Our search for a new Executive Director led us to Steven Shrybman, who has an accomplished record of doing high quality legal and policy work. Steven spent some ten years with the Canadian Environmental Law Association, our sister organization in Toronto.

Our Tradition of Coalition-Building

West Coast's pulp mill campaign is well-known in Canada. That campaign brought together a broad coalition of groups which, against formidable industry and government opposition, succeeded in bringing about the most progressive pulp mill regulations in the world. Coalition-building is how we prefer to work. We simply do not have enough financial and political clout to go it alone.

We have served notice to the provincial and federal governments that our endangered species coalition is strong. Linda Nowlan took the lead in reviving the provincial endangered species coalition last summer, assisted by the dedicated efforts of our summer law student, Michael Rodgers. The energetic commitment of the coalition's coordinator, Kate Smallwood, and the many groups in the coalition will, I am sure, outlast the intransigence to enact effective endangered species legislation.

Our Tradition of Volunteerism

West Coast started as a voluntary organization and still relies heavily on volunteers. Our dispute resolution fund goes a long way with committed volunteers. Board directors spend long hours on West Coast business. Our staff, I know, often works long hours well beyond the call of duty. Thanks again to our committed support staff Morgan Ashbridge and Alexandra Melnyk.

We have also entered into a volunteer arrangement with the Mennonite Central Committee to place a full-time volunteer in our offices for a year to develop our library resources.

The Board is mindful of the fact that as we get bigger, there is a danger of eroding the value of volunteers. Volunteers bring more than "free work". More importantly, they bring perspectives on problems and solutions which ensure that our work remains relevant. I encourage our members to drop by the offices for a visit, talk to staff or call directors — I am sure your talents can be put to good use. Law reform is a serious business, but it can also be fun and rewarding. Continue bringing your energy, ideas and even dollars to West Coast.

Our Tradition of Community Service

West Coast has long been seen by the public as a place to get advice about environmental issues. Fortunately, our financial circumstances recently allowed us to hire Andrea Finch who has ably stepped in to give summary advice on the full range of environmental issues.

Our community service has been substantially enhanced in recent years by the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund. Many community groups have taken advantage of the funding to resolve local issues. Patricia Houlihan has used considerable creativity and sensitivity in administering the Fund and giving legal advice to groups. Thanks to Pat, many lawyers have been convinced to work for $50 an hour!

West Coast's web site has become a leading source of environmental information. Bill Andrews anticipated the importance of electronic access to information, and Chris Heald has implemented it in a very user-friendly way.

Our office library, I feel, appears to be underutilized by the general public. This issue will be addressed by our volunteer Sandra Janzen in the coming year, working together with director Nancy Hannum, who is a professional librarian.

Our Tradition of Fiscal Responsibility

We find ourselves in solid financial shape. We are very grateful for the confidence shown in West Coast by foundations such as the Bullitt Foundation, the Real Estate Foundation, the T. Buck Suzuki Foundation, the VanCity Foundation and especially our main funder, the Law Foundation of British Columbia. We are very grateful to a private donor for a large donation of essential start-up funding for the Endangered Species Coalition. We intend to continue to earn the respect and support of funding agencies and the membership at large. I especially commend the prudent administration of our finances by Catherine Ludgate, the excellent accounting skills of Susan Cote, and the enthusiastic fundraising of Linda Nowlan. I also note that we had a very active Board in the past year, especially in ensuring that our financial policies and procedures are sound and beyond reproach.

Our Tradition of Diversity

West Coast has always sought out diversity. New directors in the coming year bring experience in municipal politics, financial services, medicine, engineering, corporate law, international law, native law, and leadership in First Nations.

We will continue to work on a wide variety of issues. Our experience tells us that environmental issues are not easily cast within boundaries. Consider Chris Rolfe's leading edge work on global warming: problems may be evident in Pouce Coupe and solutions are sought in Ottawa and at the United Nations. We will continue to be in Pouce Coupe, Ottawa and Geneva.

The Year Ahead

All the elements are in place for a very successful year. Our traditional strengths of careful work, coalition building, voluntarism, community service, fiscal responsibility and diversity are more relevant than ever. We have the resources, enthusiastic staff and directors, and the support of our members. An exciting year lies ahead!

Thanks to my other board members this past year for their extraordinary service and hard work: David Cohen, Chris Ferris, Susan Fraser, Nancy Hannum, Fred Henton, Tim Howard, Murray Lott, David Loukidelis, and Nancy Morgan. I am also grateful to our Honorary Board for their guidance: Thomas Berger, Garth Evans, Christopher Harvey, Greg McDade, Ross McClellan, and Andrew Thompson.

WEST COAST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (WCEL)

West Coast Environmental Law's mission is to provide legal services, research and education to promote protection of the environment and public participation in decision-making. It achieves these objectives through three program areas, and five programs. The table above shows the relationships between West Coast's program areas and its programs.

WEST COAST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ASSOCIATION (WCELA)

The West Coast Environmental Law Association's objectives are to provide legal advice and representation to individuals and organizations concerned about protection of the environment, and to work toward legislation and policy which ensures protection of the environment and effective public involvement in environmental decision-making.

Law Reform

Staff lawyers contribute substantially to the development and improvement of provincial and federal environmental laws. For example, during 1996-97, staff lawyers were active in developing the new BC Fish Protection Act.

Endangered species and climate change were our two major law reform issues over the past year, and both will continue to be priority areas of work. With the introduction of new federal legislation on endangered species, West Coast saw the opportunity to influence the provincial law reform agenda. Last summer, we revived the BC Endangered Species Coalition, whose goal is to obtain new effective legislation to protect all species at risk in BC.

The Coalition has now grown to 61 member groups representing environmental groups, conservation societies, and church groups, among others. A generous private donation provided start-up funding to hire Coalition Coordinator Kate Smallwood. Kate has been instrumental in building the Coalition, securing more long term funding, and conducting law reform activities. In January 1997, West Coast and other members of the Coalition testified on the draft federal Canada Endangered Species Protection Act before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development in Vancouver. Our submissions were well received, so we were disappointed that the federal bill was not passed before the federal election was called. West Coast also advocated greater provincial legal protection, and analyzed gaps in the existing wildlife and habitat protection laws in the province.

Climate change was our other major law reform initiative. Last year West Coast and other members of the Canadian Climate Change Action Network encouraged the federal and provincial governments to support binding international commitments that will avoid dangerous interference with global climate. West Coast has been encouraging the provincial and, to a lesser extent, the federal government to begin implementing changes aimed at reducing BC's and Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. This work has focused on encouraging improved energy efficiency standards (for buildings and cars for example), policy changes that will ensure consistent consideration of major capital investments' impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, and fiscal changes to make energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction investments more attractive. West Coast has also encouraged shifts in urban form, transportation infrastructures and transportation subsidies that will reduce dependence on motor vehicles.

Law Reform Highlights

In addition, we worked on the following law reform projects:

• development of regulations under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act,
• implementation of regulatory initiatives of the BC Greenhouse Gas Action Plan and the BC Greenhouse Gas Forum,
• development of product stewardship and contaminated sites regulations under the BC Waste Management Act, and
• ongoing development of the BC Environmental Assessment Act and federal laws such as the Oceans Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and the Fisheries Act.

Legal Aid

West Coast believes that everyone should have access to information and legal assistance to participate in resolving environmental disputes. Our free summary advice program is an effective means of providing legal advice. This program is especially helpful to the many residents of rural BC and small communities throughout the province who do not have access to legal resources. Our toll-free phone line (1 800 330WCEL) allows anyone, anywhere in BC, to speak to one of our staff lawyers. Our summary advice program served hundreds of citizens and community groups this year, and the numbers continue to grow.

Staff lawyers direct clients to sources of necessary information, and assist in dealing with municipal or government agencies, providing tactical as well as legal advice to develop the best means of resolving problems.

Legal assistance may help individuals and groups to participate in local land use planning processes, oppose aerial pesticide spraying or protect a foreshore area or an urban stream, for example. As more residents of BC become actively involved in environmental protection, the need for summary assistance and advice from West Coast staff counsel increases. An overview of this year's legal aid follows:

Legal Aid Highlights

• West Coast staff continued to work with conservancy groups, community organizations and individuals interested in using conservation covenants to protect ecological and other features of private land.
• We worked with naturalist groups to protect a riparian buffer zone free from agricultural use for wildlife habitat, and to ensure that environmental concerns were given adequate attention in the ongoing expansion of commercial activities in Cypress Provincial Park.
• We assisted the Cooperative Auto Network in developing a car-sharing agreement for members of the network. These co-ops have been shown to reduce automobile use.
• West Coast is currently working with residents in Surrey who are concerned with the proposal for a waste transfer station. The proposed site contains a recently restored fish-bearing creek and several marshy areas. Local residents are seeking a more appropriate location for the facility.
• We assisted a number of groups in making Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act requests for a report on the environmental costs of cars. The report was published by the BC Ministry of Transportation and Highways and then withdrawn.
• We provided legal assistance to residents of a rural community concerned about the impact that treated pulp mill sludge, used as a "soil enhancer" on a tree farm, would have on shallow wells in their community. Residents rely on wells for their water and the possibility of contamination from the sludge is of great concern to them. We now work with a multistakeholder group focusing on the issue of standards for use and composition of the sludge.
• In a very strongly worded decision, the Federal Court of Appeal allowed (2:1) the appeal of the Vancouver Regional FreeNet Association against the government's refusal to grant charitable status. We had been working with the VFRA, both directly and through the EDRF, to challenge the withholding of charitable status. We received considerable media coverage around this important decision. We continue to work with a number of non-profit community organizations throughout the province who have had charitable status refused or revoked.
• We answered over 350 requests for summary advice on environmental law.

WEST COAST ENVIRONMENTAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION FUND SOCIETY (EDRF)

Since 1989, thanks to the generous support of the Law Foundation of BC, the EDRF has provided over $1.7 million to help hundreds of community groups throughout BC resolve environmental disputes. We are also grateful to many dedicated lawyers who have provided assistance at a pro bono rate of $50 per hour. Without their contribution, many community organizations would have been unable to participate in the resolution of environment disputes.

The EDRF is capably administered by staff lawyer Patricia Houlihan. As community groups have often told her, EDRF funding has done more than "level the playing field" — it has helped build committed community networks and helped empower citizens in their efforts to protect the environment.

The following are highlights and a brief summary of files funded in this year.

The Residents for a Better Port Moody's victory in the BC Court of Appeal shows how EDRF support can set legal precedents and protect a sensitive urban wetland area. It also showed how municipal decision-makers can have significant impacts on environmental protection.

A group of residents in Port Moody opposed a development that was to be sited on a small, sensitive wetland area. The residents went to court to protect the area. The BC Supreme Court found that the bylaw, which could have allowed the development to proceed, was invalid because the City of Port Moody had failed to disclose all relevant information to the public, breaching its duty to disclose as much information as possible. The Municipality of Port Moody appealed the Court's decision. In November of 1996, the BC Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the City's appeal to reinstate the quashed Official Community Plan bylaw. Because the City lost its appeal, the precedent set in the BC Supreme Court remains. The judgment requires local public bodies to disclose environmental information to the public when rezoning or amendments to an official community plan are proposed.

The Nechako Environmental Coalition is concerned about air emissions from the Canadian Forest Products medium density fibreboard plant in Prince George. There are a number of mills and beehive burners in the city that all contribute to poor ambient air quality, especially during stagnant air periods. The company wants to expand its fibreboard plant and the Coalition is concerned that the proposed expansion could result in poorer air quality unless stringent air emissions conditions are met. Last fall an Environmental Appeal Board (EAB) decision resulted in substantial amendments to the plant's air emissions permit. These included limiting plant expansion until air emissions monitoring was done using actual (rather than estimated) data and requiring improvements to the plant's air emission monitoring and public release of that data. However, in November, an Order in Council varied (and weakened) the EAB's decision. Neither the Coalition nor the EAB were given notice of the variance until months later. The Coalition's counsel is launching a judicial review of this decision.

Environmental Watch, founded in 1985, has focused mainly on pulp mill issues on the BC coast. Their most recent concern is the Howe Sound Pulp and Paper mill at Port Mellon. The mill has frequently been out of compliance with existing permit levels. Rather than working to decrease emissions, the company applied to the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks for a permit amendment which would allow a 300% increase in emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO₂), which would mean an extra 300 tonnes of SO₂released into the Lower Mainland's airshed annually. Amended permit levels would also increase nitrogen oxide emissions by over 80%. Nitrogen oxide and sunlight contribute to ground-level ozone, creating smog that damages crops and makes breathing more difficult. Rather than enforcing the permit conditions and fining the company for emissions over the allowed levels, the Ministry of Environment granted the company's application to increase the permitted levels of pollution. Environmental Watch launched a private prosecution in an attempt to bring the mill into compliance, and the Crown has now taken over this prosecution. Environmental Watch is also appealing the Ministry of Environment's decision to grant higher emission levels to the mill.

The EDRF also supported a number of other community organizations including:

• Friends of Boundary Bay/Fraser for Life: to protect sensitive foreshore by requiring completion of an environmental impact assessment of the impacts of a sewage treatment plant.
• Friends of the Stikine: to protect fish and fish habitat on the Stikine and Iskut river systems from damage from an ore hauling hovercraft operation and to participate in a local resource use management plan.
• Brackendale Citizens Opposed to Airport Development: to protect bald eagles and eagle habitat from proposed airport development.
• Sunshine Coast Forest Watch: to participate in the Mt. Elphinstone Local Resource Use Plan (LRUP) and the Sunshine Coast Conservation Strategy to ensure proper participation and a sustainable design plan for the area.
• Conservancy Hornby Island: to protect a Garry Oak grove and preserve foreshore access.
• Peace Country Environmental Protection Association: to protect ambient air quality in Dawson Creek by appealing an oriented strand board plant's air emissions permit.
• Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society: to protect the Cowichan and Chemainus estuaries from contamination from pulp mill waste.
• Friends of Cypress Provincial Park: to negotiate with provincial and local government in attempting to improve the proposed Master Plan for Cypress Provincial Park and mitigate development impacts.
• Sierra Club of Canada: to participate in a court action challenging federal government regulation designed to avoid a comprehensive study and public participation in an environmental assessment review of the sale of CANDU nuclear reactors to China.
• Meziadin Lake Fellowship Association: to prevent further damage to fish and fish habitat caused by park construction.
• Reach for Unbleached: for participation in a multi-stakeholder consultation process examining the use of treated pulp mill sludge as a soil enhancer, and ongoing negotiations to set provincial standards for its use.
• Friends of the Similkameen Valley: to protect groundwater and the Similkameen river from possible contamination from slag classified as "special waste" that has been dumped into a mine tailing pond.
• Concerned Citizens of Mill Bay: to challenge a rezoning that lifted 75 acres from forest to urban residential designation without public consultation and without consideration of the impact on the residents' aquifer.
• Fairfield Citizens for Clean Air: to negotiate to amend venting arrangements from a service station and halt gasoline fumes from seeping into an apartment and adversely affecting the residents' health.

We are grateful to the following lawyers who worked on EDRF funded files this year.

WEST COAST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW RESEARCH FOUNDATION (WCELRF)

Legal Education

Last year, our legal education program concentrated on a number of related areas: wetlands, urban streams, private land protection, and endangered species.

Legal Tools to Protect Urban Streams was the topic of a lively workshop that we organized and hosted in June 1996. The results of this workshop, attended by a wide range of stakeholder groups, helped us in our law reform efforts to improve the legal protection for urban streams, consistently rated among the province's most threatened waterways. Our latest public legal education report, Protecting Wetlands in BC — A Citizen's Guide was published in December 1996, and coauthored with BC WetNet. We have already distributed over 500 copies of this popular guide. We wrote a chapter for the Canadian Wildlife Service's new publication Wetland Keepers which was modelled after the successful Stream Keepers series. And, thanks to the generous support of the Real Estate Foundation, we conducted conservation covenant workshops in communities around the province, providing information on options for protecting privately owned land.

West Coast lawyers spoke on panels at conferences, workshops, universities and schools, and at community group meetings addressing topics ranging from the environmental impacts of undersize shell fishing to public participation in environmental regimes in developing nations. We continued to distribute our popular series on protecting private land.

Legal Research

Two major legal research projects occupied West Coast in 1996-97.

The first was a comprehensive report for the provincial government on the legal and policy frameworks used to protect and manage fish, fish habitat and fisheries. Linda Nowlan from WCEL worked with Ann Hillyer and Judy Atkins of the Victoria law firm Hillyer Atkins to prepare this report, providing an overview of the complex web of laws and policies that apply to fish in British Columbia. The report also included a preliminary gap analysis of areas where the provincial and federal laws were not regulating areas of concern for fish or their habitat or were duplicating or overlapping in the provision of services. New federal-provincial agreements on an enhanced role for fisheries management in the province and new provincial laws on fish have increased the importance of this subject for West Coast.

West Coast's second major legal research project is on climate change. Strategic Options for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Chris Rolfe (publication anticipated in August) tackles one of the most pressing environmental law challenges of the next decade: curtailing emissions of greenhouse gases. The report provides a brief review of the impacts of climate change, Canada's emissions, the economics of reducing emissions and the status of international negotiations for emission reductions. It then discusses non-market instruments for reducing emissions, — for example, regulatory measures such as energy efficiency standards, and non-regulatory measures such as full cost transportation planning and utility programs to encourage energy efficient homes and businesses. The primary focus of the report is on regulatory and market instruments including emission reduction credit trading, carbon coupon trading and emission allowance trading.

The report also discusses specific issues in trading: credit for planting trees and forest management, credit for activities in other countries and trading credits for reductions of different greenhouse gases. The report concludes that no single approach offers a panacea and that an effective program will have to involve a mix of non-market and market instruments.

The report is a resource for policy makers and environmentalists pondering the different approaches to greenhouse gas reduction, and should further the debate over what steps Canada and BC must take to this end.

The WCEL Library

West Coast Environmental Law maintains a comprehensive print and on-line library of selected environmental and legal materials. The print library is housed in our offices, while the on-line portion is available on the World Wide Web, on the WCEL web site at http://vcn.bc.ca/wcel.

The library holds over ten thousand items, ranging from books, periodicals and video cassettes, to unpublished reports, collections of clippings and CD-ROMs. All our library holdings are catalogued, and this catalogue is publicly available via our web site. Many of our print holdings are also available on-line, and can be read via the Internet using a Web browser. On-line documents are easily accessible directly from the WCEL Web site, and from the search results generated by the card catalogue.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

West Coast Environmental Law Association
West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation
West Coast Envrironmental Dispute Resolution Fund Society
Highlights of Balance Sheet

West Coast Environmental Law Association
West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation
West Coast Envrironmental Dispute Resolution Fund Society
Highlights of Revenues and Expeditures and Fund Balances

SPONSORS AND DONORS

Our grateful thanks to the Law Foundation of BC for their continued generous support this past year. The Law Foundation continues to provide operating funds, and support for our Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund. In addition, we are grateful to the following agencies and foundations for their contributions to our work this past year: Action 21; BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks; BC Urban Streams Habitat Program; Bullitt Foundation; Challenge '96; Cooperative Auto Network; Environment Canada; Lazar Foundation; North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation; Real Estate Foundation; Vancouver Foundation; Wilburforce Foundation; WetKeepers; and WetNet.

And our heartfelt thanks to the many individuals and organizations who have donated to our work this past year:

Our grateful thanks to our many volunteers, students and special project workers for their invaluable contributions to West Coast over the past year:

About West Coast Environmental Law

History

The West Coast Environmental Law Association (WCELA) began as the Vancouver Environmental Law Centre in the summer of 1974, to provide a legal advisory service 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 (WCELRF), a registered charitable organization. Since 1977, WCELA and WCELRF have continued to grow.

In 1989 the West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund (EDRF) was established, to promote the rational resolution of environmental disputes in BC and alternative methods of dispute resolution, such as multi-sector negotiations.

What we do: our mission

The mission of the West Coast Environmental Law organizations is to provide legal services, research and education to promote protection of the environment and public participation in environmental decision-making.

To carry out this mission, we work in five areas: legal aid, law reform, legal research, legal education, and a library.

Legal aid

We provide free legal advice on environmental issues that affect British Columbians. We represent clients in environmental legal matters, or we refer them to other environmental lawyers. We also operate the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund, which provides financial assistance to groups and individuals to hire environmental lawyers and specialists to help settle environmental concerns.

Law reform

British Columbia and Canada's environmental heritage deserves all the protection we can give — and more. West Coast's lawyers and staff are constantly working toward creating new environmental laws, and toward improving existing laws, to help protect the environment for the benefit and enjoyment of all Canadians, and for all generations to come.

Legal research

West Coast lawyers research laws for environmental impacts — both negative and positive. Legal research is often the first step toward the creation of a new environmental law, regulation or policy. We examine laws in Canada, laws from around the world, international treaties, trade agreements, and other policies and regulatory mechanisms. We look for examples of what works, and what doesn't, and we try to uncover environmental areas and issues that have yet to be addressed by law.

Legal education

West Coast promotes public awareness of environmental legal issues through the books, guides and newsletters that we publish, the West Coast web site, and through public speaking, information booths, media interviews and editorials.

Library

We maintain an extensive, publicly-available, reference library of environmental and legal materials. A valuable resource on environmental protection, the library currently holds over ten thousand publications, many of which are unavailable anywhere else. As part of the library, we also maintain a world wide web site which holds on-line copies of West Coast's publications and newsletters, an extensive collection of links to other environmental and legal resources on the Internet, and selected environmental statutes and publications.

Why should you support us?

We can't do this work without you! We are part of the foundation of environmental protection in BC — join us, become a member, and help us put together the building blocks of environmental protection in BC. Without the laws protecting the beauty that surrounds us, the goal of environmental conservation becomes that much harder to achieve. When you read about key decisions protecting BC's environmental treasures, or when the government announces new laws to protect our environment, it's likely that West Coast Environmental Law was there, lending a helping hand. When polluters are fined for harming the environment, it's thanks to laws that West Coast helped create. Help us keep up our efforts.

Thanks!

We are especially grateful to the Law Foundation of British Columbia for its generous support of our work. Thanks!

WEST COAST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

1001 - 207 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7