Abitibi wins, Newfoundland cleanup order unenforceable after insolvency
Provincial governments must do more to ensure that cleanup costs are provided by financial assurance during the active life of a business, and not rely on getting innocent third parties to pay for cleanups after the fact.
View the post titled Abitibi wins, Newfoundland cleanup order unenforceable after insolvencyA reader writes about environmental management systems
Dear Dianne Saxe, I read some of your postings this am. I cannot help but think that if robust, credible and reliable EMS (aligned to ISO 14001) were more wide spread that some of these challenges could have been avoided. Not only would they have avoided the environmental damage, but the fin…
View the post titled A reader writes about environmental management systemsNew voluntary standard for carbon storage
The Canadian Standards Association has released a voluntary standard for the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide, CSA Z741. The CSA Z741 Geological storage of carbon dioxide standard is the first of its kind, and is intended to ensure a clear minimum standard for geologic (long-term, underg…
View the post titled New voluntary standard for carbon storageWhen can municipalities regulate environmental impacts?
Eleven years after the landmark Spraytech case, how far have municipalities been able to go in regulating environmental impacts of federally and provincially regulated activities? The people who must live closest to a resource or energy project often turn to their municipalities to protect t…
View the post titled When can municipalities regulate environmental impacts?New Guidance for Excess Soil management
The Ministry of the Environment has released its draft Best Management Practices for Soil Management in Ontario for two more months of public comment. The document outlines the MOE’s “recommendations” and “expectations” for managing the reuse of excess soils, a hugely important issue for the…
View the post titled New Guidance for Excess Soil managementCanada must answer: why aren't we protecting polar bears?
As the polar bears of the Beaufort Sea face record low ice, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has issued a determination, requiring a response from Canada to submission SEM-11-003 (Protection of Polar Bears). A year ago, on 5 December 2011, the US Center f…
View the post titled Canada must answer: why aren't we protecting polar bears?Combined sewer overflows into Great Lakes going down
This month’s issue of Water Canada has some good news about what has been done to cut the flow of untreated sewage into the Great Lakes over the last 40 years. “Curbing the Flow” chronicles the steps that have been taken to slash raw and combined sewer overflows in four Can…
View the post titled Combined sewer overflows into Great Lakes going downInnocent victim, Kawartha Lakes, gets leave to appeal spill cleanup order
The Ontario Court of Appeal has granted leave to appeal the Ministry of the Environment Order requiring an innocent victim of a spill, the City of Kawartha Lakes, to clean up oil from a domestic fuel spill.
View the post titled Innocent victim, Kawartha Lakes, gets leave to appeal spill cleanup orderWaste exemption becomes less useful: what is "wholly used"?
The Environmental Review Tribunal has reduced the usefulness of an important exception to the “waste” rules in Regulation 347.
View the post titled Waste exemption becomes less useful: what is "wholly used"?Town liable for negligence re developer's storm sewer
Property owners often suffered damage when storm and sanitary sewers malfunction. Canadian municipalities are generally exempt from civil suits in nuisance relating to their sewers, due to special statutes adopted across the country. However, they can be successfully sued in negligence. Such…
View the post titled Town liable for negligence re developer's storm sewerReceive Blog Posts
By subscribing to our blog, you will receive an email when a new post is added. You can unsubscribe at any time by sending an email to us at [email protected] with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line.