I recently got a chance to follow up with environmental lawyer Dianne Saxe on the upcoming changes to the Ontario Environmental Approvals process. We had done an interview a couple months ago, but with the changes now in proposed acts, it was time to follow up.

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The changes to the approvals process should make Ontario business’ lives a bit easier, but it also imposes much more serious responsibilities on the shoulders of corporate directors. The fines that you may face, should you not respect your permits, are substantial and much easier to apply – so beware. With high turnover at many companies, some neglect their permits, stored away in a filing cabinet, as Dianne mentions in the interview, this is a very dangerous practice. Time to dust off the permits and get a crash course in the new system, take a look at the video below to get started and we will be covering these changes in detail at NimonikApp.ca (get a free account today!).

Dianne wrote up a great post on the changes which can be found on her blog, envirolaw.com, here.

I recently got the chance to sit down with Richard Girard of the Polaris institute in Ottawa. He has just released a corporate profile of oil pipeline giant Enbridge. We run through his findings, how the pipelines are compromising the environmental health and safety of local communities and the ties between government and industry. Our interview went a bit long, but we go through a lot of interesting issues surrounding the extraction, transportation and use of oil in the Canadian west.

You can download the full Corporate Profile Report here.

TarSands Watch
Polaris Institute

While we primarily service industry, it is more important than ever to ensure industry is acting responsibly and transparently. With millions of barrels of oil pouring into the gulf, we need to ensure our government aires not the side of caution, something I fear we have not done in the TarSands.

Tarsands production consumption of natural resources

Pembina goes on to estimate that the increased tar sands production made possible by a new half-million barrels per day pipeline from the tar sands would: consume the amount of natural gas consumed by 1.3 million Canadian households each year; disturb 11.5 square kilometers of Boreal forest; consume 200 million barrels of processing water; and create over 4 billion litres of toxic tailings of which 455 million litres will leak into Alberta’s watersheds.157

Spills and leaks in the pipeline

Spills, leaks and ruptures that have occurred on Enbridge pipelines over the past ten years. Between 1999 and 2008, across all of Enbridge’s operations there were 610 spills that released close to 132,000 barrels (21 million litres) of
hydrocarbons into the environment.1 This amounts to approximately half of the oil that spilled from the oil tanker the Exxon Valdez after it struck a rock in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1988.

Yves Faguy recently had a chance to interview Laura Zizzo from Zizzo Allan Climate Law LLP. They talked about the Kerry Lieberman bill, European ETS, and voluntary credits. If you want to get a sense of how your business may be affected by climate law, take a look at this 14 minute video.

Below is my interview (in French) with Hervé Pageot, of Daigneault Avocats Inc., who discusses Quebec’s proposed regulations that would impose fees for water use in the province. The fees, two to three times higher than similar fees in Ontario, would apply to use of both ground water and water from municipal distribution systems. Interestingly, actions that result in the decrease or diversion of underground water would also be subject to the fees. Targeted industries are the water-bottling sector, mineral and oil & gas extraction, as well as 21 other types of manufacturers, including food and beverages producers, the tobacco industry, textile manufacturers, producers of wood, paper, chemical, plastic, metal and electronic products, and producers of transportation material.

The regulations would apply to anyone using an average volume of water equal to or exceeding 75 cubic meters per day, calculated on a monthly basis with fees determined based on annual usage. The regulations will come into force in 2011. The fees are generally set at $0.0025 per cubic meter used, although certain activities are charged a significantly higher rate of $0.07 per cubic meter used. The more modest fee is intended for industries that return most the water used back to the ecosystem. The chemical products and beverage industry (including water bottlers) will be the hardest hit.

A 60-day comment period was opened on the date of publication of the notice. Any interested person or parties are invited to submit their comments during this time.

To see the proposed regulations (in French only), click here.

Here are two great talks on desperate needs to overhaul the legal system. First, let’s attack the use of legal jargon in and around the law:

Next, we need a deeper change that places more responsibility and flexibility in the interpretation of the law, making it more human.