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the government adopted a largely ad hoc approach to updating the CSR, which has, in some cases, resulted in outdated standards.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 ...
In 2016, the B.C. Supreme Court rendered a decision in the case of Domovitch v. Willows, 2016 BCSC 1068, which considered a number of important issues in the context of a residential cost recovery claim. Given that very few cases involving residential contamination go to trial, the decision provides valuable insight into the interpretation and ...
In the 2018 decision of Foster v. Tundra Turbos Inc., 2018 BCSC 563, Warren J., the Court once again cited Richard and Una’s book on B.C.’s environmental management legislation as an authoritative source and held at paragraph 21: “[21] Liability under the E.M.A. is based on the “polluter-pays principle” that those who cause contamination should ...
Since both landlords and tenants can attract statutory environmental liability arising from mere ownership or having carried out any (even non-polluting) operation on contaminated land, measures to minimize and, where appropriate, allocate, the liability risk should be considered by both prior to the commencement of the lease. That being said, the nature of the protections ...
Richard and Una wrote the book on B.C.’s environmental management legislation (literally) which was cited in a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision involving environmental liability. In the 2017 case of Burnaby (City) v. Environmental Appeal Board, 2017 BCSC 2267 Brundrett J., the Court referred to Richard and Una’s book at paragraph 11 of the decision: ...
