Senior lawyer to evaluate legal options for local governments to sue fossil fuel companies

VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – Climate campaigners at West Coast Environmental Law and the Georgia Strait Alliance responded to today’s announcement by the City of Victoria at the Union of BC Municipalities that one of Canada’s foremost legal minds, Joe Arvay of Arvay Finlay, will be preparing a legal opinion on options for local governments to recover their climate costs from global fossil fuel companies.

“We are delighted that one of Canada’s top legal minds will help BC’s local governments understand their legal options to protect their taxpayers from the costs of climate change and to recover a fair share of those costs from the world’s fossil fuel giants,” said Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer. “British Columbians cannot afford to pay the current and future billions of dollars in costs associated with preparing for and rebuilding after wildfires, floods, rising sea levels and other climate impacts while Chevron and Exxon pocket the profits from the products that caused those impacts.”

“This announcement at UBCM keeps options on the table to bring corporations which have profited massively from deceiving the public on climate change into a conversation about their responsibility for local government climate costs,” said Anna Barford, Community Organizer, Georgia Strait Alliance.

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For more information, please contact:

Andrew Gage | Staff Lawyer, West Coast Environmental Law
250-380-8207, agage@wcel.org

Allison Murray | Communications Associate, Georgia Strait Alliance
604-442-1846, MurrayCommunications@yahoo.com