Cumulative Effects

An environmental tune to celebrate the season

Last year we had "Twas an Alberta night before Christmas" - this year is a much shorter environmental round up - sung to "Let it Snow" Oh the omni-bus bills were frightful But the PR is so delightful And since the fish have no place to go We’ve been...

20 December, 2012 / 2 Comments

Creditor protection versus polluter pays: Laws leave environment cash strapped

The Environmental Law Centre promotes the polluter pays principle as central to effective environmental law. Inherent in the polluter pays principle is the assumption that, if you can’t afford to clean up a mess, you shouldn’t be in business to begin with. Of course nothing...

14 December, 2012 / 1 Comment

An approval too far: Cumulative effects must be considered prior to approving activities

The Government of Alberta (GOA) has started down the road of managing cumulative effects. It won’t be easy, but the government is armed with regulatory tools. Specifically, the GOA has put in place “environmental management frameworks” (EMF) through its regional planning process, which allow it...

03 October, 2012 / 1 Comment

The quandary of cumulative effects: Fitting a science peg in a law hole

In March 2012, ELC Executive Director Cindy Chiasson presented a paper called "The Quandary of Cumulative Effects — Fitting a Science Peg in a Law Hole" at the Canadian Institute of Resources Law (CIRL) Symposium. You can download the paper (in English or French) on the...

28 August, 2012 / 0 Comments

Environmental assessment and duplication: “Don’t we have a photocopier?”

There is significant rhetoric around how the federal and provincial governments have duplicative and therefore inefficient environmental assessment processes. The federal government has fully bought in on it and has indicated its intent to remove itself from many environmental assessments. I for one find the duplication...

17 April, 2012 / 2 Comments

Is basic science taking a back seat in policy development?

There is a mantra that I hear all too often in reference to environmental management. “We can’t manage what we don’t measure.” While I agree, it seems to be me that we rarely measure enough to make truly informed decisions, and things are getting worse....

02 March, 2012 / 0 Comments

Core Environmental Principles for Environmental Laws, Policies and Legal Processes

The Environmental Law Centre recognizes that the environment is a public good that must be protected. The Environmental Law Centre’s Strategic Plan 2012-2015 references several core environmental principles that are required for strong and effective environmental laws, policies and legal processes. These core principles are: sustainability, precautionary...

14 February, 2012 / 0 Comments

Twas an Alberta night before Christmas

(adapted from Twas the Night Before Christmas, C. Moore or H. Livingston) Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, definitely not a Greater Sage Grouse The stockings were hung by the chimney with care In hopes that a wetland policy soon...

20 December, 2011 / 2 Comments

Cumulative environmental defects

The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development released a report yesterday covering the federal government’s climate change plans and cumulative environmental effects assessment of oil sands projects. The Commissioner identifies several significant deficiencies in federal environmental management. On the climate change side the Commissioner notes...

05 October, 2011 / 1 Comment

The one-two punch for Alberta’s Caribou

Within the past 7 days the federal and provincial governments published documents that may result in Alberta’s Woodland Caribou going down for the count. These documents include the proposed federal Recovery Strategy for Woodland Caribou, Boreal population and the Draft Lower Athabasca Regional Plan (LARP). So...

02 September, 2011 / 1 Comment