Environmental, Indigenous and Natural Resources Blog

Last week we summarized the recommendations set out by the Expert Panel established by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change in its report entitled 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”). One of those recommendations was ...

Our April 7 post on the report of the Expert Panel reviewing federal environmental assessment processes noted that the report contains recommendations for greater inclusion of Indigenous peoples in federal environmental assessment processes. This post looks in more detail at the report’s key recommendations and commentary on that subject. Overall, the Expert ...

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 ...

Jeff Christian and Lana Shipley, Partners at Lawson Lundell LLP, have written a Q&A guide to electricity regulation in Canada. The Q&A gives a high level overview of the domestic electricity market, including domestic electricity companies, electricity generation and renewable energy, transmission, distribution, supply and tax issues. It covers the regulatory ...

Lewis Manning and Bernadita Tamura-O'Connor, Partners at Lawson Lundell LLP, have written a Q&A guide to oil and gas regulation in Canada. The Q&A provides a high level overview of the domestic oil and gas sector, rights to oil and gas, health, safety, and the environment, sale and trade in oil and gas, tax and enforcement of regulation. It covers transfer of rights; ...

When will the replacement of operator provisions in the 2007 CAPL Operating Procedure (“Paragraph 2.02”) be enforced against a party in receivership in the context of a court approved sale of the underlying oil and gas properties? This question was recently considered by Justice Macleod in Bank of Montreal v. Bumper Development Corporation Ltd., 2016 ABQB 363 ...

The AER has issued Bulletin 2016-21  to respond to the industry's outcry to Bulletin 2016-16 which imposed a 2.0 LMR minimum threshold for eligibility to take transfers of AER-licensed assets.  Bulletin 2016-16 was in response to the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench decision in Redwater Energy Corporation (Re), 2016 ABQB 278, which we previously commented on.

This Bulletin ...

Can you ever do indirectly that which you cannot do directly? The answer appears to be yes, in certain circumstances according to the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench decision in Northrock Resources v ExxonMobil Canada Energy, 2016 SKQB 188.  This case considers this issue in the context of rights of first refusal ("ROFR") when dealing with oil and gas transactions.

Among ...

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 ...