Harper Grey’s environmental group argued this case on behalf of the City of Burnaby. A recent Environmental Appeal Board (EAB) decision highlights that property owners, whose land has been contaminated by migration from a neighbour, have recourse through an appeal to the EAB where they believe a neighbour’s cleanup was inadequate [Burnaby (City) v. Director ...
The Ministry of Environment’s (“MOE”) site profile system is a process to screen for potentially contaminated sites. Through this system, the MOE and certain municipalities coordinate their respective functions to identify and address environmental risk. The changes set to take effect in 2021 are designed to address perceived gaps and weaknesses in the process. Current ...
Environmental Assessment Certificates Restricted to One Five‑Year Extension under the Environmental Assessment Act Obtaining an environmental assessment certificate is an important early step for any large environmental project. However, factors outside of one’s control can often produce delays which, in turn, prevent substantial work from being completed on a project in a timely manner. Although ...
What types of damages can you claim as remediation costs under the Environmental Management Act? The answer to that question became a little bit clearer with the release of the B.C. Supreme Court’s decision in Jansen Industries 2010 Ltd. v. Victory Motors (Abbotsford) Ltd. 2019 BCSC 1621. In it, the Court ruled that stigma damages ...
Whenever resorting to legal action to get money back, for anything, many would say the proposition is already a challenging one. So the question becomes, is claiming against a polluter for costs put into a clean-up any better? Under our Environmental Management Act, we have in BC a ‘cost recovery action’ (s. 47(5)). This section ...
The decision of A Speedy Solutions Oil Tank Removal Inc. v. Garraway, 2019 BCSC 1091 provides remediation companies along with both sellers and purchasers of properties alike with an important and timely reminder of the need for clear and transparent communication with respect to fees and how professional services will be charged. At its core, ...
In the recent decision of Glacier Resorts Ltd. v. British Columbia (Minister of Environment), 2019 BCCA 289, the B.C. Court of Appeal held that it was reasonable for the Minister of the Environment to have found that an environmental assessment certificate had lapsed based upon her observation that the work on the ground had not ...
Under B.C.’s Environmental Management Act, a director or officer of a company that owns or operates on, or has historically owned or operated on, a contaminated site is a “person responsible for remediation” of that site simply in virtue of their position with the company. Such directors and officers can be liable to pay the ...
The British Columbia provincial government ushered in a significant update to the Contaminated Sites Regulation (the “CSR”) on November 1, 2017. Historically, the government adopted a largely ad hoc approach to updating the CSR, which has, in some cases, resulted in outdated standards. In order to address this issue, the provincial government implemented an “Omnibus” ...
Although it is standard practice for landlords to build several provisions into their commercial lease agreements to guard against liability exposure stemming from their tenants’ operations on their land, few landlords appear to fully appreciate the potential environmental liability risks that they are exposed to as a result of their tenants’ activities, which exist both ...
