Environmental Law Alert Blog

Through our Environmental Law Alert blog, West Coast keeps you up to date on the latest developments and issues in environmental law. This includes:

  • proposed changes to the law that will weaken, or strengthen, environmental protection;
  • stories and situations where existing environmental laws are failing to protect the environment; and
  • emerging legal strategies that could be used to protect our environment.

If you have an environmental story that we should hear about, please e-mail Andrew Gage. We welcome your comments on any of the posts to this blog – but please keep in mind our policies on comments.

2020 Canadian Law Blog Awards Winner

Last July (2011)  we told you about the Halalt First Nation’s win in the BC Supreme Court to protect water flow in the Chemainus River, when the BC Supreme Court ordered a halt to the use of water from

Several days spent at the end of September at UB

A group of parents and kids in Vernon are celebrating, after School District 22 finally agreed to stop using pesticides to control dandelions and other “cosmetic pests” on school properties.  After years of inaction by the School District, parents used the School Act, with help from lawyers funded through West Coast’s

The Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides has announced that it’s going to hold its third meeting tomorrow (October 6th and several other meeting dates have also been announced), followed by the announcement that

On September 13th, 2011, the Land Use Committee A of the Capital Regional District (CRD) voted to reject a rezoning proposal that would have allowed the controversial Marine Trail Resort development, at the boundaries of the

Late last week (Thursday, September 8th), the Canadian government, after working for almost a decade to develop a plan to manage BC’s North Coast, known as the Pacific North Coast Integrated Marine Area Plan (PNCIMA), suddenly announced that it is withdrawing from an agreemen

Industry and government are often quick to proclaim the jobs created by mines and other industrial operations, and to characterize environmental assessment and other environmental laws as

A BC Court of Appeal decision issued earlier this month (July 5th) has confirmed that the province’s Riparian Areas Regulation (RAR) by itself provides little legal protection for fish habitat.  The RAR is the province’s primary legal

Dene Tha’ First Nation Challenges the Sale of Oil and Gas Parcels on their Traditional Territory

Last week (on July 13th), Madame Justice Wedge of the BC Supreme Court sided with the Halalt First Nation and suspended plans to pump water from the Chemainus aquifer to be used in the District of North Cowichan.  West Coast Environ