WEST COAST
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

ANNUAL REPORTS
1997-1998

CONTENTS

OUR YEAR IN REVIEW

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

WEST COAST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES

ENVIRONMENTAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION FUND

RESEARCH FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

OUR HISTORY

OUR YEAR IN REVIEW

When I arrived at West Coast last summer, moving with my family from Ontario, I was already very familiar with West Coast's excellent work — not just because of its considerable contributions over the years to federal environmental policy and law, but because of its successes in fostering provincial initiatives that have often served as the standard for other provinces to follow. Since then, I have learned a lot more about the breadth and quality of the work of West Coast and about the relationships that it has been able to build with individuals and groups from every sector of society and from every region of the province.

This next year will be West Coast's twenty-fifth and I believe that there has never been a greater need for the rigorous, fair-minded but uncompromising environmental advocacy that has been the tradition here for so many years. It is a real privilege to take up the challenge of carrying on this vital work.

While it certainly hasn't all been good news, this year has been marked by several significant accomplishments, not only in the area of substantive law reform but also in terms of our ability to respond to new challenges and develop some new partnerships. Among the most significant of these achievements has been our work in support of two important international environmental milestones — one to establish commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the other to restrict hazardous waste trade to developing countries. We have also had considerable success in raising public awareness about the environmental implications of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. It is this awareness, and the demand for further debate that it inspired, that have been credited with preventing the MAI from being signed this past April.

This is also an opportunity to report on the successes and challenges of the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund. Through the EDRF, we provide financial support to community-based groups across the province working to protect the environment in their communities — from litigation to protect watersheds or agricultural land to negotiated resolutions of disputes about local air pollution and landfill siting — the EDRF has made access to justice a reality for environmental and community groups from every region of the province.

I wish that I could report similar progress on other fronts, but in many ways the challenges confronting us have never been more daunting. In fact, as evidence grows about the seriousness of the ecological crises before us, political will to do something about them seems at an all-time low. Whether it is fighting efforts to weaken the Forest Practices Code, opposing provisions of the Mining Rights Amendments Act that will undermine parks and wilderness objectives, advocating the maintenance of the right to information under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, or seeking to prevent backsliding in the new version of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act — these days we spend as much time fighting to preserve the status quo as we spend working for progressive change.

The haste with which governments have abandoned their commitments to a meaningful environmental agenda has underscored the need to substantially broaden the base of popular support for environmental reform. This is why building alliances with other sectors has become an important theme of our work over the past year.

We have also recognized the need to respond to some new challenges, as national and global forces play a larger and larger role in shaping our environmental agenda on Canada's west coast. While we certainly can't cover all of the bases, I feel that West Coast has been remarkably successful in responding to critical international and national initiatives while maintaining a firm commitment to working at the provincial and local level.

This year has also been one of growth and transition. Last fall, Mark Haddock joined our legal staff to help us with various projects concerning forest policy and law. Earlier this year, David Clark, QC, took up the challenge of establishing a development program for West Coast. We said goodbye to Morgan Ashbridge, a long standing member of our support staff whose work on behalf of the EDRF has had a lot to do with its success. I also need to thank Andrea Finch who spent a year with us providing legal services as she filled in for Linda Nowlan and bridged the gap caused by the transition to a new Executive Director.

It has been a great pleasure getting to know and work with the West Coast staff. Linda Nowlan and Chris Rolfe form the core of a strong legal staff who bring both determined commitment and diverse expertise to their work. Kate Smallwood's dynamic leadership has kept the Endangered Species Coalition alive and vital in a less than sympathetic public policy environment. I also need to acknowledge the incredible dedication and remarkable efforts of our support staff: Catherine Ludgate, Alexandra Melnyk, Christopher Heald and Sandra Janzen. Their work is the reason that we have been able to stretch thin resources to cover so many bases.

Steven Shrybman

Executive Director

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

It is with great pleasure that I convey the thanks of the Board to the many people who make West Coast work. I think that I have worked with almost every staff member over the past two years and I can attest to their hard work and commitment.

Specifically, thanks to Linda Nowlan and her wealth of experience in guiding us through rapid changes in the past year (this in addition to having a baby!). Thanks to Chris Rolfe who also gave birth of sorts, namely his leading edge encyclopedic report on climate change. Mark Haddock's work against all odds in forestry law was greatly appreciated, as is his work on our guide to forest land use planning in BC. Patricia Houlihan, who departs at the end of June 1998, leaves West Coast's Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund in excellent shape, and we hope that she works on some EDRF files as a private practitioner. We are grateful for Kate Smallwood's diligence in putting together a very effective — and growing — Endangered Species Coalition. That Coalition will, I am certain, not rest until the long-overdue legislation is put in place. Andrea Finch's contract with us concluded recently, and with great success, as she won a landmark decision at the Environmental Appeal Board. At the end of our fiscal year, our administrative assistant Morgan Ashbridge rode off into the sunset of the Chilcotin — we miss her good humour, something which was very much needed to deal with some EDRF applicants. Catherine Ludgate, our officer manager, has done a stellar job in managing the many financial and administrative tasks at West Coast, and especially in assisting our new executive director, Steven, make the transition. We also appreciate the competence and enthusiasm of Susan Cote who provides critical accounting support. Senior administrative assistant Alexandra Melnyk has also been an enthusiastic contributor to office work and we now welcome secretary Cynthia Linderbeck to our office. Christopher Heald's work on our web site and the newsletter has been essential in getting our message out. The Board also very much appreciates the library service provided by Sandra Janzen, who is a full-time volunteer with us under an arrangement with the Mennonite Central Committee. Our thanks also to David Clark, QC, who brings a wealth of experience in both fundraising and politics to his new position as development director on our staff. West Coast has benefited greatly from the many students who spend time with us, and this year is no exception: thanks to Greg Barkovich, Jessica Clogg, Stephanie Dixon, Elizabeth Rowbotham, Brad Sparks, Sarah Watson, Sara Wong and Gil Yaron. And last but certainly not least, a very big thank you to Steven Shrybman, our new executive director. Steven, we discovered with great pleasure, is a formidable force in conducting campaigns such as the one he led on the MAI. As importantly, Steven showed real leadership in putting in place administrative systems which keep up with our changing goals. West Coast is in good hands with Steven.

Thanks to my other board members this past year for their hard work and dedicated service: Connie Ahmed, Jim Atwater, John Borrows, David Cohen, David Driscoll, Chris Ferris, Susan Fraser, Nancy Hannum, Fred Henton, Tim Howard, Murray Lott, David Loukidelis, Nancy Morgan, Tom Perry, Simone Sangster, and Ray Schachter. We are also grateful to our Honorary Board: Thomas Berger, Garth Evans, Christopher Harvey, Greg McDade, Ross McClellan, and Andrew Thompson. I'd also like to recognize the commitment of the Law Foundation to our work; their support is essential to our success.

My two-year tenure as President has provided the opportunity to consider how environmental protection can best be realized. Two lessons come to mind. The first lesson comes from serving as the environmental representative on Canada's delegation to the United Nations' Basel Convention held in Malaysia earlier this year. Without discussing the details, suffice it to say that the Basel Convention attempts to prevent European and North American industries from dumping their hazardous waste in Africa and India. At the Malaysia meetings, it became evident that a number of western countries were trying to weaken a key aspect of the Convention. In the face of this threat, I and a handful of environmental "volunteers" from various countries formed a rag-tag team which, all immodesty aside, contributed substantially to ward off the effort to weaken the Convention. This experience, in my opinion, points to the potential role for volunteers. I strongly urge fuller participation by West Coast members — directors and other members alike — in our environmental work.

Another lesson for our work comes from those politicians who call environmentalists "the enemies of the people." We can expect politicians to continue to invoke this ugly rhetoric. That temptation will be very strong when the debate is cast — simplistically — in terms of unemployed forestry workers versus privileged and self-interested lobby groups out to protect their "wilderness lifestyle." Our challenge is to root our environmental agenda within the larger social justice community. It is there that our environmental ethic becomes sharp and relevant. West Coast's continued diversification on the Board is essential. New representatives from First Nations, the Asian community and the labour sector will, I hope, challenge how we set our goals. Environmental "victories" which do not redress the causes of, say, poverty in resource regions and transnationals trumping local community goals with international trade law are not victories at all. Environmentalism without social justice is doomed to deal only with marginal matters.

I thank you for the privilege of serving as West Coast's President.

Waldemar Braul

President, Board of Directors

WEST COAST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

West Coast Environmental Law's mission is to provide legal advice and representation to individuals and organizations on environmental matters, and to work for progressive policy and law reform that will protect the environment and ensure public involvement in environmental decision-making. To meet this mandate, we organize our work into five program areas: law reform, legal aid, research, education and our library. Our three societies (the Association, the Research Foundation, the Dispute Resolution Fund) each play a role in delivering these services, and we do our best to integrate their activities.

ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES

While we are firmly rooted in BC, West Coast has always recognized the importance of representing this part of Canada in all spheres of environmental policy and law. We thought it would be appropriate to report on our activities over the past year by reviewing some of the highlights of our work on international and national issues as well as on initiatives closer to home.

International: Climate Change, Hazardous Waste Trade and the MAI

Last year our colleagues in other environmental groups nominated us to represent them on Canada's official delegation to some important international environmental negotiations. We took good advantage of these opportunities, not only to influence Canada's position at these conventions, but also to work with environmentalists from Canada and from other countries who do not have similar access to the negotiating process.

When West Coast joined Canada's delegation to the Climate Change Convention negotiations in Kyoto late last year, we were determined to ensure Canadian support for meaningful commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While more substantial commitments will be needed, the Kyoto commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by six percent over the next twelve years represents a significant step forward. For Canada, meeting that goal will require a dramatic change of direction from our current course that will otherwise see emissions reach levels nineteen percent higher than those of 1990.

Another other official delegation we joined last year was to the Fourth Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste. As our President's report noted, West Coast was ably represented by our outgoing President who, we should add, did an excellent job working both within the delegation and with other environmental groups in support of an important advance of the Basel agenda that saw agreement reached about the need to ban hazardous waste exports to poor countries.

The other success we can mark concerns the recent fate of the MAI negotiations. As most will know, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment is being negotiated by the members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. But efforts to conclude MAI negotiations this April stumbled badly as citizens throughout the OECD demanded more public debate about the consequences of this treaty for investor rights. According to the Globe and Mail, much of the credit has to go to the Internet, and to groups like ours who worked to raise public awareness about the MAI's likely impacts. Our analysis of the potential impacts of the MAI has been widely quoted and distributed across Canada and the United States. You can find it by visiting our web site.

In addition, we continued our important international work on biodiversity, habitat and sustainable development issues. Because of the strength of our work on these issues, we were again selected by Canadian environmental groups to be one of two representatives to the 1997 meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. If space allowed, we would tell you more about our work with the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) in the US and Mexico, and our speaking presentations at various public fora convened as part of the People's Summit to the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) that took place in Vancouver last fall. We are also now associated with the International Forum on Globalization, which has brought together activists and academics from around the world working to address the consequences of an emerging global economy.

National: Environmental Assessment, Harmonization and International Trade

We continue to play a determined role in working to shape federal environmental law and policy, especially in those areas of particular importance to British Columbia. For example, as a member of the Regulatory Advisory Committee to the Minister on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, we will be the environmental voice on a subcommittee which will make recommendations on proposed environmental assessment regulations for Canada Port Authorities pursuant to the Canada Marine Act. We played a similar role in working to ensure adequate protection for marine ecosystems under the Canada Water Act, bills to reform the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and the draft Canada Endangered Species Protection Act.

We also accepted invitations last year to appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development; on the first of these occasions we expressed our concerns about the impacts of the Canada Wide Accord on Environmental Harmonization. We joined with other environmental groups in expressing strong opposition to an agreement that will, we believe, substantially undermine environmental initiative by both levels of government. Unfortunately, and notwithstanding the Committee's support for our concerns, the Accord was signed early this year. A recent scathing report by the Federal Commissioner of the Environment emphasized the need to strengthen, not abandon, federal commitments to environmental protection. Fortunately, the Accord must be reviewed in two years, a review we have already begun to prepare for.

Later in the year we also appeared before the Committee to explain our concerns about the MAI, and in particular to address the implications of the investor-state suit provisions of the MAI. The MAI's powerful enforcement regime will, in our view, have very serious and adverse impacts on the principles of democratic, transparent and accountable decision-making that represent the bedrock upon which our judicial systems are founded.

Provincial: Sustainable Natural Resources Management and Access to information

Unfortunately, and with few exceptions, much of work in the provincial context has been to resist the erosion of environmental legal protections that we have worked over the years to establish.

Working with BC Environmental Network Forest Caucus, we played a key role this year in reviewing and providing critical analysis of changes to twelve regulations under the BC Forest Practices Code. We were able to draw upon the specialized expertise of three of our staff lawyers to expose just how regressive many of these "reforms" would be. Our input resulted in moderating some of the most draconian aspects of these revisions, but Code changes still represents a substantial step in the wrong direction. Of particular concern is the diminished role the Ministry of Forests will now play in the planning and approval processes for forest harvesting activities.

On April 22, the Mining Rights Amendment Act, 1998 (Bill 12), was introduced into the BC legislature and rushed through to Second Reading on April 29th. It appears to have been developed in closed door discussions with the mining industry; no consultation occurred with stakeholders other than industry. Our ability to carry out a quick and incisive analysis of the Bill resulted in changes that modified some of its most problematic provisions, but again the outcome will undermine environmental goals for this sector.

While much of the attention on fisheries issues is focused on disputes with the US and between our federal and provincial governments, there is a pressing need to address the problem of fish habitat destruction. That is why we have been working hard to promote implementation of the Fish Protection Act by providing advice on the Act to municipal councillors, conservation organizations, and the United Fishers and Allied Workers Union. We are also preparing materials on the Act for workshops we hope to hold later this year. We consider the full implementation of the Fish Protection Act to be a priority and are determined to see significant progress made in the year ahead. In addition to these commitments, we have also been working on a BC Near Shore Habitat Loss Prevention Action Plan which identifies provincial regulatory initiatives needed to improve the protection and management of coastal habitat in the Georgia Basin.

In another defensive struggle, we are working with the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association to head off changes to the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act that will weaken the important rights to information this Act establishes. The group has been convened as part of an effort to coordinate a response to the Legislative Committee now reviewing FIPA. We are working with community and environmental groups to ensure that we succeed in preventing the erosion of these important democratic rights.

And lots more … including multi-stakeholder consultations on pulp mill sludge management, a public review of the BC Environmental Assessment Act, efforts to strengthen mechanisms for private land protection, comments on wood residue burner regulations, consultations on BC pollution prevention initiatives, a response to management proposals for acid mine drainage, a brief on transportation governance for the Greater Vancouver Regional District, and through the Endangered Species Coalition, many endangered species related initiatives.

BUILDING BRIDGES

It is discouraging that debate about environmental issues has become increasingly confrontational and polarized in British Columbia. We can understand the frustrations and anxieties that have given rise to these tensions, but we also recognize an urgent need to overcome them, if we are to successfully confront the enormous ecological challenges before us. One of our most important strengths over the years has been our ability to work with and bring together often diverse constituencies. We thought it appropriate in these circumstances to provide an encapsulated description of the partnerships and working relationships we have established.

With Community Groups

• Through the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund we have provided support to hundreds of community based ENGOs around the province

• Through providing advice to conservancy groups and land owners on conservation covenants

• Through public legal education, including materials prepared for Vancouver's diverse ethnic communities

• Through answering thousands of summary legal advice requests about a broad and diverse range of environmental issues

With Environmental Groups

• As host and coordinator of the BC Endangered Species Coalition and participant in the Canadian Biodiversity Forum

• As a member of BC's Environmental Mining Council and Fish Habitat Protection Council

• As a member of the steering committees of the BC and Canadian Environmental Network caucuses

• As a member of the steering committee of the Canadian Action Network on Climate Change

With Social Justice Groups

• As a member of the research advisory committee of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

• As a member of the Common Front on the World Trade Organization

• As a member of the steering committee of the MAI-Not network of BC

• As a member of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association

• As a speaker at public events and meetings held by a wide variety of community, ethnic and religious organizations

With Business

• As a member of the BC Greenhouse Gas Forum, the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading Pilot Project, and the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Environmental Managers Association

• As a co-sponsor of several public legal education initiatives

• As members of several multi-stakeholder consultations on such diverse issues as product stewardship, pulp mill sludge management, biodiversity protection, pollution prevention, and the national pollution release inventory

With First Nations

• As a presenter to the BC Council of Indian Chiefs

• As a participant in a First Nations/Environmental summit

• As an interpreter to First Nations of the Delgamuukw decision and its effect on environmental and land use issues

With Government and Public Agencies

• Through contract work with the Ministry of Employment and Investment to assess the environmental implications of the MAI

• Through our participation in the BC/Washington Habitat Loss Working Group

• Through a contract with the BC Parks Legacy Program to review the Parks Act

• Through our role as a member of several Canadian delegations to international environmental negotiations

• Through our membership on the federal Regulatory Advisory Committee on the application of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act

With Labour

• As a member of the Labour and Environment Forum and through co-chairing its conflict resolution committee

• As a participant in the Canadian Labour Congress' environment committee

• As a partner with the CLC on pollution prevention initiatives

• As part of a working group convened to address the issue of just transitions for workers displaced by environmental change

• As a member of several multi-stakeholder processes

ENVIRONMENTAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION FUND

With resources provided by the Law Foundation, the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund makes funding available to individuals and community-based groups which would not otherwise be able to afford the legal and expert assistance they need to address environmental issues and problems in their communities.

During this past year, the EDRF supported dozens of applications from individuals and groups seeking legal advice and counsel. These applications, which originated from every part of the province, concerned issues as diverse as violations of a municipal air quality bylaw in Surrey, the protection of fish habitat on the Stikine River, and the removal of land from the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve near Kamloops.

It is a measure of the success of providing timely access to counsel and technical advice that funding recipients are often able to resolve environmental disputes long before the point of litigation. In fact, a large number of EDRF disputes are resolved through consultation and negotiation among EDRF clients, public officials and private proponents. However, when negotiation fails, EDRF clients have gone to the Environmental Appeal Board or to court to fight some important battles, win some important victories, and set some important legal precedents.

Here is very brief synopsis of some of the cases the EDRF was able to support this year:

• Burns Bog Society: to address impact of the proposed forty-year landfill lease on contamination of the lower mainland bog

• Canadian Earthcare Society: to prevent possible contamination of Okanagan Lake from mine wastewater treatment effluent

• Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society: to address the failure of all Five Year Forest Development Plans ("FDPs") to incorporate Forest Practice Code requirements in the BC interior

• Concerned Residents Against Pollution: to protect human health and the environment from liquid effluents and gaseous emissions from new natural gas extraction plant to be built on contaminated land in northern BC

• Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society: to protect the Cowichan and Chemainus Estuaries on central Vancouver Island from adverse impacts of industry

• Ecological Health Alliance: to limit the impact of aerial and ground pesticide spraying of areas of Greater Victoria

• Environmental Mining Council: to protect water quality and fish habitat at Kemess Creek from potential impact of the Kemess copper/gold mine in the Peace/MacKenzie Basin

• Farmfolk/Cityfolk Society: to address the removal of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve near Kamloops

• Friends of the Stikine: to participate in a critical land and resource use planning committee in northwestern BC

• Peace Country Environmental Protection Society: to protect human health and air quality in Dawson Creek from the air emissions from an oriented strandboard plant

• Protect Our Watershed & Environmental Rights: to protect a watershed near Crofton from proposed use as a landfill for industrial waste from a pulp mill

• Surrey Langley Environmental Protection Society: to resolve an air quality problem by pressing for the first successful prosecution by the Greater Vancouver Regional District under its Air Quality Bylaw

• Telkwa Educational Action Coalition of Householders: to address the environmental impacts, including acid mine drainage, of the an open pit coal mine

• Waterbird Watch Society: to protect waterbirds and conserve their habitat by ensuring bylaw enforcement on Salt Spring Island

• Valhalla Society: to pursue legal remedies to protect their watershed from the impacts of logging and road building activities in southeastern BC

We should conclude our report on EDRF activities by emphasizing that much of the credit for its success must go to members of the legal profession who continue to make their services available at an hourly rate of $50. As many will know, this hourly fee represents, at best, only partial cost-recovery for lawyers willing to take on EDRF-funded clients, and who deserve our recognition.

Our thanks go to:

Bill Andrews Wendy Baker Wally Braul John Conroy Robert Cooper J. Douglas Eastwood Andrea Finch Susan Fraser Franklin Gertler Ann Hillyer Nicholas Hughes Chris Lemon

Francois LeTourneaux Brent Lokash Jane Luke Ron MacIsaac Tom Manson Kenyon McGee Inga Nykwist Douglas Olstead Valerie Osborne Carol Reardon Ben Van Drimmelen

Summary Advice

Providing summary legal advice also continues to be a key component of our work, even though it rarely comes to public attention. We answered more than 450 summary advice calls last year on an extremely diverse array of environmental issues from municipal protection of riparian zones to interpretation of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. West Coast is committed to providing public legal information to all residents of this province, and our toll-free phone line (1 800 330 WCEL) allows anyone, anywhere in BC, to speak to one of our staff lawyers. We believe that our free summary advice program is an effective means of providing this legal service to all BC residents including those living in rural areas and small communities throughout the province.

West Coast staff lawyers also participate in a unique international summary advice program (Environmental Lawyers Alliance Worldwide, ELAW) which operates through a confidential internet discussion group. ELAW allows public interest environmental lawyers from around the world to share information on laws, policies, cases, strategies, expert assistance and comparative environmental law.

RESEARCH FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES

Legal Education

Last year, our legal education program concentrated on a number of areas: forest planning, endangered species, conservation covenants, urban streams and the emerging area of globalization and international trade regimes.

Endangered species protection was the topic of a groundbreaking and lively workshop that we organized and hosted over two days in June 1997. A joint project of the Research Foundation and the Endangered Species Coalition, the workshop brought together experts from across this country and the United States to explore the many and diverse issues that arise when species protection initiatives are considered. One important highlight of the workshop was an evening keynote speech by Dr David Suzuki.

Through the Endangered Species Coalition, we undertook a variety of legal education initiatives, including the first steps to developing educational materials on species and habitat protection for school-age children and the development of a travelling slide show on BC endangered and threatened species. We have also started working with faith-based groups to develop materials for media use on endangered species issues.

We continued to offer community-based workshops on the use of conservation covenants to protect ecologically sensitive or environmentally unique aspects of private land. This year, we led workshops in communities on Vancouver Island and in the Gulf Islands, and we continued to distribute our series of popular reports on protecting private land. In addition to these workshops, we answered dozens of summary advice requests for information and guidance by landowners considering a conservation covenant and from conservation and trust groups wondering how best to meet their stewardship obligations. We continued to distribute other popular guidebooks on environmental legal issues throughout the year. In particular, Protecting BC's Wetlands: A Citizens Guide, was much in demand for community-based streamkeepers groups.

West Coast lawyers continued our tradition of public speaking, and appeared on panels at conferences, workshops, universities and schools, and at community group meetings addressing topics ranging from community stream protection to the environmental threats posed by the Multilateral Agreement on Investment.

Legal Research

This year was an extremely active one for us on the research front as well. One of our largest research projects culminated with the publication of Turning Down the Heat: Canadian Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, by Chris Rolfe. Chris's book will assist Canadian policy makers in their search for effective ways to reduce Canadian greenhouse gas emissions. Turning Down the Heat is an in-depth analysis of emissions trading, and it should dispel some of the myths and misconceptions that abound when this particular approach to environmental regulation is considered. It seems clear that trading will be a central part of the debate concerning implementation of Canada's greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. We expect that Turning Down the Heat will make a significant contribution to that debate.

We have also been busy this year with the research and drafting of a Citizen's Guide to Forest Laws and Land Use Planning. This Guide will provide an overview and summary of the forest land use planning process in BC. The complexity of the planning process and its many elements has created a significant impediment to informed public participation. We expect that our Guide will make access to, and understanding of, these important planning issues far more available to those with an interest in forest land use.

Under contract to the provincial Ministry of Employment and Investment, we completed an in-depth analysis and legal opinion on the potential impacts of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment for environmental policy, law and regulation as these measures concern forests and fisheries in BC. Our opinion addressed both federal and provincial measures, as well as international treaty obligations under the Law of the Sea and the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

We responded to the announcement of new provincial Fish Protection Act. Our brief on the Act included a number of suggested amendments and improvements to the Act. It was widely distributed to government representatives as well as environmental, community and labour groups concerned about this important legislative initiative.

We also began to respond to the need for plain language materials, on various environmental issues, in languages other than English. Our first project has been to research and write a brochure on recreational fishing regulations that will be translated and distributed to Asian-language speaking groups over the coming summer.

The Library and Web Site

West Coast Environmental Law maintains a comprehensive print and online library of environmental and legal materials. All our library holdings are catalogued for electronic searching at our library and on our web site at http://vcn.bc.ca/wcel. The public is welcome to use our library; students, concerned citizens, and other environmental groups are our most frequent users. The library is open weekdays, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.

The library holds materials that West Coast lawyers and staff use for our own research, as well as materials that we think are useful for the public. Materials range from books, periodicals and video cassettes, to unpublished reports, collections of clippings and CD-ROMs. Our materials cover both legal and non-legal subject matters. Holdings include the Revised Statutes of British Columbia, Federal Statutes on CD-ROM, EcoLog, Environmental Appeal Board decisions, citizen guides on pollution prevention and wetland conservation, over a hundred periodicals and law journals, and various state of the environment reports, to name a few. Most West Coast publications and a number of our other print holdings are available for reading online through our web site.

This past year, we began work in partnership with Sandra Janzen, a volunteer service worker placed with us by the Mennonite Central Committee, for a two year term. Sandra's project is to reorganize our library holdings, assist members of the public using our library, strengthen the links between our hardcopy collection and our web site, and promote our library.

We also began an extensive reorganization of our web site this past year. The reorganized site better reflects the diversity of issues we are working on, and makes both our own resources, and our links to other resources, more readily available to the public. The volume of information we had made available online had outgrown our original site plan. Users and staff alike found that documents were becoming harder and harder to find. After numerous brainstorming, design and planning sessions, we developed a new system for electronically publishing our work.

The site is now broken down into our areas of expertise, giving users a much more thematic approach to our body of work. We are also unifying the look and feel of the site, to improve ease of use, and to impart a sense of familiarity. Initial reaction to the new site has been positive and plentiful, with comments from a variety of users, from students and concerned citizens to other environmental groups and government personnel.

SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

West Coast's budget continues to grow, reflecting the confidence placed in us by funding agencies and individuals. The unwavering support of the Law Foundation is especially recognized. The Law Foundation has assisted us not only with significant financial resources but also with its deliberative and constructive approach to ensure that we can do our best job with their funding.

Other important funding agencies include BC Ministry of Employment and Investment, BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada, Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, Forest Renewal BC, Lazar Foundation, Legal Services Society, Real Estate Foundation, and Vancouver Foundation.

We would also like to thank the many individuals and organizations who have made financial contributions to our work this past year.

OUR HISTORY

West Coast Environmental Law first opened its doors in 1974, and we have been actively promoting progressive environmental law reform ever since. Over the years we have helped establish or shape many of the most significant environmental legislative initiatives that have been enacted by our provincial and federal governments.

At West Coast we work closely with our colleagues in other environmental organizations and have often played a leading role in collective efforts to achieve environmental goals. It has been a central and ongoing priority of our work to empower citizens by helping them establish their right to participate in all aspects of environmental decision-making.

We are proud that our work has contributed to establishing environmental laws and regulations that represent important precedents for other governments, including:

• leading the BC Pulp Pollution Campaign, which was instrumental in influencing the province to introduce the toughest mill effluent regulations in the world;

• championing comprehensive provincial contaminated sites regulations, including drafting model legislation that is now used as a precedent by other governments;

• leading a strategic law reform campaign that resulted in significant changes to the provincial Land Title Act. Now, conservation groups can hold protective covenants on private land to preserve environmentally significant values in perpetuity;

• pushing the provincial government to adopt the world's first strict vehicle emissions regulation that explicitly target greenhouse gas emissions;

• leading the development of what is arguably the strongest access to information legislation in Canada, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act;

• developing the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the BC Environmental Assessment Act, and providing ongoing advice to governments and citizens' groups about how to improve these critical review processes;

• working on the drafting committee that produced the pollution prevention reforms to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. We also helped develop the National Pollutant Release Inventory.

We count as integral to our work a commitment to ensuring that all citizens have equal access to justice and, to that end, we have been providing free legal advice and services for almost twenty-five years. In 1989 we established the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund (EDRF) which provides funding to individuals and citizen groups needing support for environmental litigation or alternative dispute resolution.

We also believe that community legal education is critical to informed public participation in environmental decision-making, and we have published a broad variety of handbooks, guides and other materials to inform and empower citizens and public interest groups. We maintain an extensive web site that records over 1,000 hits each month and is widely recognized as a leading source of online environmental legal information.

Over the years we have built a solid reputation for rigorous and thorough legal analysis and we are often commissioned by governments to provide advice or to draft legislation. Our track record for doing our homework has meant that our legal analysis and opinions are sought and trusted by colleagues, citizens, industry and government.

1001 — 207 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7
voice: 604 684-7378 fax: 604 684-1312
1 800 330-WCEL (in BC)
email: admin@wcel.org
www: http://vcn.bc.ca/wcel

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