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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.
It feels a bit like déjà vu.
Once again we’re faced with a federal government study that was highly relevant to the environmental assessment of the Enbridge pipelines and tankers project, but which was not considered in the assessment because it was released too late.
You may have heard our sister organization, the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation, mentioned last night on CBC’s Power and Politics. We understand that a government source tipped Evan Solomon to the fact that the Research Foundation, along wi
Before your eyes glaze over, let me explain why a current BC Ministry of Environment public consultation on Administrative Penalties under the Environmental Management Act and the Integrated Pest Management Act (IPMA) matters – and is a good thing for enviro
What to make of the conclusion, courtesy of the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel (JRP) considering Enbridge’s proposed pipelines and tankers project, that a catastrophic spill of diluted bitumen (untreated oil sands oil, diluted so that it can be transported by pipe) on BC’s North Coast would only have a short-term impact on the enviro
When the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) tries to detect violations of BC’s forest laws, do they put their efforts into detecting violations by large logging companies or small-scale operators? It turns out that small-scale operators and individuals get over half of the attention of government inspectors,
Through that contested landscape runs the Peace River, which drains east from the Rocky Mountains into the Slave River, a tributary to the Mackenzie. Thanks to the sunny southwest aspect of its slopes and long northern summer days, the valley the Peace River cuts contains a unique microclimate that makes it the only lands north of Quesnel capable of producing the widest range of food crops possible in BC, including fruit and vegetables.
We and our allies have emphasized the many and real environmental risks of the Enbridge Pipelines and Tankers Project, the wall of opposition of First Nations, the lack of social licence among British Columbians. The National Energy Board Joint Review Panel, in its recent report recommending that the project be allowed to proceed, had to c
[Update, 23 January 2014 - We have just posted further analysis of this data, examining the extent to which the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations has shifted compliance an
On Thursday, December 5, 2013, members of the Yinka Dene Alliance, a group of six First Nations in northern BC who have banned the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines from their territ