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.