Blog

To allow innocent third parties to build or operate on historically contaminated lands, we often use a legal structure known as a “piecrust”. For a presentation that describes the concept, click Introduction to Piecrusts.

To no one’s surprise, the Harper government has again approved Imperial Oil’s Kearl oil sands mine. In May, a court ruled that the mine’s environmental assessment had not been properly completed because it gave no credible reasons why the mine’s massive greenhouse gas…

According to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the  concentration of CO2  in the atmosphere is now 387 ppm, the highest level for at least 650,000 years. Meanwhile, the city of Toronto released figures showing that the August 19, 2005 storm has cost the city …

Alberta’s cap and trade plan may create another opportunity for the federal and provincial governments to tussle over oil revenues. Alberta’s “Specified Gas Emitters” regulation requires Alberta’s largest emitters to reduce the intensity of their greenhouse gas …

Suddenly, it seems, there is a crescendo of interest in climate change adaptation. Perhaps Toronto’s $500 million in insurance claims for the August 2005 rainstorm have helped to bring home the unpleasant fact that the costs of climate change won’t just fall on our children- they…

After years of relatively little pesticides litigation, there is suddenly an explosion of activity. The federal government is facing nine lawsuits (Including class actions) across the country arising from alleged pesticide contamination of the Gagetown military base. Some product liability l…

Canada’s first major battle on the place of greenhouse gases in environmental assessment continued this week, with a major defeat for Imperial Oil. As described in our April post, earlier this year, the Federal Court rejected Imperial’s CEAA Environmental Assessment of its huge K…

Making landfill gas capture mandatory makes it ineligible for carbon credits.

The Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act will making the pesticide ban uniform across Ontario, and will transfer enforcement responsibility from municipalities to the Ministry of the Environment.