Environmental, Indigenous and Natural Resources Blog

On April 5, 2017, an Expert Panel established by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change (the “Panel”) released its report, Building Common Ground - A New Vision for Impact Assessment in Canada, The Final Report of the Expert Panel for the Review of Environmental Assessment Processes (the “Report”). Our post of June 26, 2016 discussed the Federal ...

Introduction

In Fort Nelson First Nation v. British Columbia (Environmental Assessment Office), 2016 BCCA 500, the B.C. Court of Appeal recently considered three issues involving the Reviewable Projects Regulation under B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Act:

1. whether a letter from the Environmental Assessment Office (“EAO”) confirming a proponent’s ...

On June 20, 2016 the Government of Canada announced its review of several environmental and regulatory processes. The review will focus on three areas:

• the federal Environmental Assessment process, which was revised in 2012 by the Conservative government,

• modernization of the National Energy Board, and

• the federal Fisheries Act and Navigation Protection Act, both of ...

Update: On June 9, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear an appeal from Yukon Court of Appeal’s Peel watershed decision.  Click here to read our earlier blog post on the Court of Appeal’s decision handed down November 4, 2015.

The Supreme Court of Canada has handed down its decision in the Daniels case. The Supreme Court’s decision resolves a question of constitutional responsibility for Aboriginal peoples other than First Nations and Inuit — Canada’s Métis and non-status Indians.

Under section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867, the federal Parliament has exclusive legislative ...

On April 4, 2016, the Government of Alberta (“GoA”) implemented its first formal consultation process between the government, project proponents, and Métis Settlements with the release of The Government of Alberta’s Guidelines on Consultation with Métis Settlements on Land and Natural Resource Management, 2016 (“Guidelines”) and The Government of ...

Late last week, the Government of Canada released a proposed methodology for estimating upstream GHG emissions from proposed oil and gas projects undergoing federal environmental assessment. This comes on the heels of the Government’s announcement in late January of its new guiding principles for project review, one of which included assessment of “direct and ...

On January 14, the Supreme Court of British Columbia found that the Province had improperly abdicated its decision making authority with respect to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project by entering into an Equivalency Agreement with the federal government. Furthermore, the Court found that the Province had breached its duty to consult with First Nations by not ...

In a set of press releases issued today (here and here), the Government of Canada announced 5 principles that it says will guide its discretionary decision-making for projects being reviewed in environmental assessment, along with a set of interim measures it says will be implemented in two existing pipeline reviews.

While today’s announcements will likely have an ...

On November 4, 2015, the Yukon Court of Appeal released its decision in the Peel River case that we first reported on here.  The decision focussed on whether the Yukon Government properly followed the land use planning process set out in three modern land claims agreements in the development of a land use plan for the Peel River region.  The Court of Appeal largely agreed with the ...