Recent Developments in Environmental Law - October 2007

Written By Hilary R. Stedwil and Lyndon A. Heidinger

The following recent developments may be of interest to you. Please contact any of Bennett Jones' environmental, health and safety, emissions trading, energy or natural resource lawyers if you have any questions or would like us to assist you.

Federal

• The Government of Canada published their climate change plan for the purposes of the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, 2007, which became law following the royal assent of private members Bill C-288 initiated by the opposition. Th e plan is being challenged in court by environmental groups.
• The Government of Canada will spend $214 million to clean up contaminated sites for which the government is the owner or is otherwise responsible. Publicly owned mines, military bases and harbours will receive substantial funding.
• Alberta In February 2007 an independent panel of experts was established to review, and provide recommendations on, the royalty and tax system in Alberta respecting energy development. The panel's final report, Our Fair Share, is available at: http://www.albertaroyaltyreview.ca/panel/final_report.pdf
  
  The report calls for a significant increase in oil sands royalties and the provincial apportionment from high-production oil and natural gas wells. The recommendations, if fully adopted, could result in a 20 percent increase over current revenues.
• William Tilleman is the new chair of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board and will be so until two new chairs are appointed, for the Energy Resources Conservation Board and the Alberta Utilities Board, expected in early 2008.
• Alberta's Privacy Commissioner, Frank Work, ruled the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board violated provincial law when it hired private investigators to "spy" on opponents of a proposed project that was the subject of a hearing. The Board was found to have violated provincial legislation because it collected information on the landowners it was not authorized to collect.

Ontario

• The Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario entering into the Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin seems to coordinate the government of Canada's involvement with Ontario's Clean Water Act, 2006. The agreement does not impose direct obligations on private land owners or industrial facilities.
• The Government of Ontario amended its local air quality regulation, reducing emission limits for certain substances, including lead and cadmium. The amendments also add substances that had not had limits, such as chloromethane and propylene. These changes will only affect companies as early as February 1, 2010. Other amendments exempt standby power sources from the local air quality emissions standards, but not approval requirements.
• The Government of Ontario filed new regulations to impose charges for industrial and commercial water users. These charges will apply to certain food and beverage companies, ready mix concrete and other non-metallic mineral manufacturers, and certain agricultural chemical and inorganic chemical producers. Charges are in the order of $3.71 per million litres of water used each year.
• The Government of Ontario is proposing new regulations to require waste disposal facilities with capacity greater than 1.5 million cubic metres (down from 3 million cubic metres) to include plans for the design and operation of methane gas controls by January 1, 2009. The government will receive comments on this proposed regulation until November 7, 2007.

Climate Change

• A group of investment entrepreneurs reviewed the Federal Government's proposed regulatory framework on air emissions and concluded that they should be able to offer a publicly-traded carbon futures contract in Canada by the fourth quarter of 2007. The group is hopeful that their product will assist large final emitters to comply with their obligations.
• Professors Ian Burton and David Pearson will lead a Government of Ontario panel on “adaptation strategies” with respect to climate change.