Model contract for engineers and their clients
We are frequently consulted on disputes over the wording of contracts between environmental engineers and their clients. Some contracts are just badly drafted, so it’s hard to know what they mean. Others are clearly drafted, but don’t describe what the client was promised. Some …
View the post titled Model contract for engineers and their clientsSuccessful nonsuits- hazardous waste
Successful non-suits of environmental prosecutions are rare. A non-suit is granted only when the Crown has failed to offer any evidence, no matter how manifestly unreliable, of the essential elements of the offences charged. I was therefore particularly pleased to achieve three non-suits o…
View the post titled Successful nonsuits- hazardous wasteMunicipality can protect shoreline
Quebec City has successfully defended a bylaw requiring private property owners to naturalize the shoreline of its water supply. The St. Charles River, which flows into the lake of the same name, provides over half the potable water used by Quebec City. A study revealed that the banks of th…
View the post titled Municipality can protect shorelineSeizure on consent?
When can ministry investigators seize documents outside the scope of a search warrant? During the execution of a warrant, Ministry of the Environment investigators seized approximately 100 documents that clearly lay outside the scope of the warrant. They showed one set of documents to the co…
View the post titled Seizure on consent?Earthquakes and nuclear plants
Soon after our office stopped shaking in today’s second earthquake, I started to wonder again about Ontario’s nuclear plants. OPG says we shouldn’t worry: “There have been no earthquakes greater than a Magnitude 4 within 50 km of the Pickering nuclear power station o…
View the post titled Earthquakes and nuclear plantsApprovals reform Bill introduced
Two environmental Bills were introduced into the Ontario Legislature this week: approvals reform, and a major push to develop and export clean water technology. For most Ontario businesses, the approvals reform package will be, by far, the most important. The Bill will amend the Environmenta…
View the post titled Approvals reform Bill introducedBetter Ontario toilets
Conserve water: us? Ontario residents and businesses have never worried much about conserving water; as a result, we are among the world’s most wasteful water users: a drowning 260 litres per person per day. Calls for voluntary conservation have had little effect. Now, water conservation rul…
View the post titled Better Ontario toiletsEnvironmental penalties gaining steam
Ontario’s environmental penalties regime for spills is gathering steam. The final count for 2009 was 13 penalties totalling $112,143.20, most under the Environmental Protection Act. The highest penalty was $23,750. Thirteen more penalties have already been issued in the first four months of …
View the post titled Environmental penalties gaining steamWant to buy a landfill?
The long, troubled history of the Cayuga landfill has another twist. The court-appointed receiver, SF Partners, is now inviting offers to purchase the Cayuga landfill, after nearly 10 years of effort to modernize and reopen it.
View the post titled Want to buy a landfill?Environmental Assessment: Worth the cost?
The main finding of this study is that the lengthy time frames and higher costs to comply with the Municipal Class EA process are not providing additional environmental or other benefits.
View the post titled Environmental Assessment: Worth the cost?Receive Blog Posts
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