Toronto Mulls Administrative Monetary Penalty System
As cities aim to improve their sustainability, by improving air quality and congestion, the City of Toronto is looking at ways to make it easier to ticket cars blocking bike lanes by moving to an Administrative Monetary Penalty (AMP) system. And to save some money in the process. We weren’t able to find much on the City’s...
Continue reading the post titled Toronto Mulls Administrative Monetary Penalty SystemUtah latest US state to mandating disclosure of fracking chemicals
On October 24, the Utah Board of Oil, Gas and Mining approved a new rule requiring companies to use FracFocus, the US’s national hydraulic fracturing chemical registry, to report the amount and types of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to produce oil and gas. Seven other states also use FracFocus for regulatory reporting.
Continue reading the post titled Utah latest US state to mandating disclosure of fracking chemicalsThe Problem of Too Much Soil and Dirty Fill
At the end of December, 2016, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (“MOECC”) in Ontario released its Excess Soil Policy Framework. The problem of excess soil is not a small one, and it has been gaining more attention, particularly as big cities seek to intensify, creating vast quantities of “fill” that then has to...
Continue reading the post titled The Problem of Too Much Soil and Dirty Fill$70,000 in fines for breach of PCB regulations
On July 27, 2016, the Ontario Court of Justice levied $70,000 in fines against a Hamilton company for contravention of the federal PCB regulations and for failing to comply with an Environmental Protection Compliance Order, issued under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA). Under the PCB regulations, PCBs can only be used in particular...
Continue reading the post titled $70,000 in fines for breach of PCB regulationsSnapping Turtle Hunt Banned in Ontario
The Ontario government has announced amendments to the Hunting Regulation (O Reg 665/98, made under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1997) that will, among other changes, prohibit the hunting of snapping turtles in the province. In its original posting to the Environmental Registry (the “Registry”) the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (“MNRF”) proposed...
Continue reading the post titled Snapping Turtle Hunt Banned in OntarioExpert Panel on Land Use Planning: mainstream climate change
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing released Planning for Health, Prosperity, and Growth as part of its co-ordinated review of land use plans in Ontario. The report provided a total of 87 recommendations about building communities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. This report is the outcome of the province’s February 2015 announcement...
Continue reading the post titled Expert Panel on Land Use Planning: mainstream climate changeForce Majeure and the COVID-19 pandemic
What is “Force Majeure”? Force Majeure provisions, which stem from the French term meaning “greater force” or “superior force” are incorporated into many types of commercial agreements. These clauses are generally put in place to relieve a party from having to perform its contractual obligations due to the occurrence of an unexpected, unforeseen, supervening, and...
Continue reading the post titled Force Majeure and the COVID-19 pandemicA costly lesson in how not to conduct a workplace harassment investigation
It seems that everywhere we look these days, sexual harassment is on the radar – whether in Hollywood, the CBC or in our own workplaces. Recent changes to Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act now require investigations to be conducted by employers into all incidents or complaints of harassment. In a decision released by the...
Continue reading the post titled A costly lesson in how not to conduct a workplace harassment investigationExperts permitted to testify via telephone… sometimes
The Environmental Review Tribunal has granted a request to have expert witnesses testify via telephone conference call when the appellants argued that it would be too costly to have them attend in person, and that videoconferencing was also costly, as well as prone to technological failure. In Pitt v. Director, Ministry of the Environment, 2014...
Continue reading the post titled Experts permitted to testify via telephone… sometimesClimate change and gardens
As passionate gardeners, we keep wondering how the changing climate is affecting our gardens. (We last wrote about climate change in this space during the heat of summer in 2010.) We therefore noticed when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) updated its plant hardiness zone map on January 25, 2012. Throughout much of the U.S.,...
Continue reading the post titled Climate change and gardensReceive Blog Posts
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