Environmental, Indigenous and Natural Resources Blog

Formal Negotiations between Canada and the United States to modernize the Columbia River Treaty began in May 2018. The Canadian and US delegations have met 6 times, in Washington DC (twice), Nelson BC, Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, and Portland OR. This article describes the current Treaty, the factors leading to the current negotiations, and the stated modernization ...

After 115 years under the old regime, the new Water Sustainability Act received Royal Assent on Friday May 20, 2014: an historic occasion to celebrate?

Not quite yet, perhaps. The fact is the vast majority of the new statute will not have the force of law until authorized by the Lieutenant Governor in Council at an unspecified future date (section 219).   With new water ...

The Province’s discussion paper Pricing B.C.’s Water has garnered a wide range of opinions since being released in March. As part of the public consultation effort regarding the new Water Sustainability Act (now at 2^nd reading in the legislature), the public was given until April 8 to provide its views on water pricing and the Province’s water pricing principles.

On March 11, 2014 the BC government introduced a first reading of the Water Sustainability Act, Bill 18, the culmination of a 4-year initiative to modernize the 100-year old Water Act.  Followers of this blog or BC water issues will know that the government released a comprehensive “proposal” regarding the new statute in the fall of 2013 (see our previous blog post here).   ...

The Province recently approved amendments to the Water Regulation to eliminate minor but inconvenient steps in the permitting process.

BC Regulation 234/2013 amends the Water Regulation to:

i) eliminate the requirement for duplicate signatures on water license applications;  and

ii) eliminate the requirement that applicants for certain non-contentious water ...

The public comment period on the Province’s proposed new Water Sustainability Act has now closed.  With well over 400 submissions, interest in the new (potential) water regime remains very high.  Issues of particular note that have been raised include:

• the applicability of the new Act to oil and gas operations, including a possible exemption for deep saline groundwater;

On October 18, 2013  the BC government released a long-awaited “proposal” to replace the 100+ year-old Water Act.   Four years in the making, the lengthy description of what the new Water Sustainability Act would be and how it would work is available here.  No draft legislation has been provided, and the Province continues to seek public input until November 15, 2013.  ...

British Columbia has become the latest North American jurisdiction to give utility regulators – in this case the BC Utilities Commission -  the power to impose “administrative penalties”.  Administrative penalties are like fines, but are imposed directly by the regulator outside the court process.  The fines can range from $25,000 to $1,000,000 per day, depending on ...

Since 2009, the Alberta government has reserved for itself the right to exempt electricity transmission projects from review by the Alberta Utilities Commission.   Exempted projects have been referred to as Bill 50 Projects, Bill 50 being the name of the law when it was first proposed.  Billions of dollars worth of Bill 50 Projects have been advanced since 2009, and those ...