PCBs in fish
PCBs in your fish dinner? Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) were used for decades in industry and to make electrical equipment like transformers and capacitors.[i] They are slow to break down and hard to destroy. PCB are known carcinogens and have been linked to adverse reproductive, immune, nervous and endocrine effects, among others.[ii] Trace levels are found...
Continue reading the post titled PCBs in fishDrive Clean tweaked
Ontario’s vehicle emissions control program, Drive Clean, is getting a tuneup. Amendments to Ontario Regulation 361/98[i] (Motor Vehicles) under the Environmental Protection Act will modernize the Drive Clean program.[ii] By December 12, 2012, the Acceleration Simulation Mode (dynamometer) tailpipe test will be replaced with: [iii],[iv]
Continue reading the post titled Drive Clean tweakedWater meters inexorable
Pay for use or flat rates? Flat rates are often popular, but they are poor public policy. Flat rates encourage waste. Flat rates discourage conservation of water and energy, and devalue their importance. Flat rates make conscientious citizens pay for the bad habits of wasteful neighbours. And flat rates are generally too low to pay...
Continue reading the post titled Water meters inexorableOntario's proposed approach to cap and trade
Last week, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (“MOECC”) posted to the Environmental Registry its proposed approach to establishing a cap and trade regime in the province. Preferred and considered options for such a regime were are outlined in a “Cap and Trade Program Design Options” document, upon which the MOECC is accepting comments...
Continue reading the post titled Ontario's proposed approach to cap and tradeBird-building collisions and ECAs
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (“MOECC”) has posted to the Environmental Registry (“ER”) a proposal for a draft regulatory amendment to exempt reflective building surfaces (such as the windows of office buildings) from requiring an Environmental Compliance Approval (“ECA”). (Unfortunately, the date for providing comments has just passed). Reflective building surfaces are...
Continue reading the post titled Bird-building collisions and ECAsThe Paris Agreement
Over the weekend, representatives from 195 countries signed an historic agreement aimed at curbing climate change. The “Paris Agreement,” which has yet, of course, to be ratified, is being touted as a “universal” climate agreement, with 195 signatories. Industry, policy-makers, ENGOs, and others will no doubt continue to digest the Agreement, and its implications, over the...
Continue reading the post titled The Paris AgreementThe (Contaminated) Ground Beneath our Feet
The extent and nature of contaminated land in Canada — the toxic legacy of our collective history of poor environmental stewardship, including through weak environmental regulation — continues to invade the headlines. A few weeks ago, a CBC/Radio-Canada report revealed that dozens of former dumps on the island of Montreal have been covered over without ever having been decontaminated. Numerous municipal...
Continue reading the post titled The (Contaminated) Ground Beneath our FeetMethane catastrophe in California: implications for cap and trade
Southern California is, at this very moment, in the throes of what is potentially the most prolific gas leak to have ever occurred. The disaster–a methane leak at a natural gas storage facility in Porter Ranch, California–has yet to galvanize the kind of media and popular attention that attended the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. However, particularly...
Continue reading the post titled Methane catastrophe in California: implications for cap and tradeFurther wind litigation and the Oak Ridges Moraine: Part I
Another appeal of a Renewable Energy Approval (“REA”) for a wind turbine project has made its way to, and been refused by, the Environmental Review Tribunal (“ERT”). The appeal in SR Opposition Corp v Director, Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, 2015 CanLII 86926 (ON ERT) concerned the construction and operation of a Class...
Continue reading the post titled Further wind litigation and the Oak Ridges Moraine: Part IPMRA intends to end conditional registration of pesticides
Health Canada recently announced that as of June 1, 2016, it intends to end the federal practice of granting conditional registrations of for pesticides. Under the Pest Control Products Act, SC 2002 c28, (“PCPA”), Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (“PMRA”) is tasked with evaluating prospective pest control products for entry into, and ongoing use...
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