According to Rod Phillips, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP), the “Preserving and Protecting our Environment for Future Generation, A Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan,” is a “…clean break from the status quo.” According to Mr. Phillips, “We understand the pressure Ontarians feel with rising costs of living as well as skyrocketing energy costs that have hurt our economy and our competitiveness. They are understandably frustrated to see their...
Read MoreOff-Site Contamination: Are you responsible for the cleanup?
Who pays for the assessment and remediation of contamination in Ontario, especially when that contamination has migrated off site? If you said it’s the responsible party, you are only partly right. Who pays and how to best protect yourself and your company has been a subject we have discussed several times in the past (see these blogs on environmental liability issues). Whether the responsible party, the existing owner, or tenants at the property pay (for example when...
Read MoreWater Quality Concerns
Aside from maintaining environmental compliance, dealing with a spill, evaluating long-term remediation efforts, or assessing the environmental liability at a commercial property before your company commits, there are the big-picture environmental issues that may eventually affect you (or your client’s) business. Environmental Impacts to Water Bodies One of the big-picture issues that is important to everyone is the health of water bodies, small and large. More...
Read MoreEnvironmental Enforcement News Across Canada
We are taking a break from news regarding vapour intrusion, managing excess soils, and the hot button issue of PFAS to provide a brief update on environmental enforcement activity. Below are just a few of our environmental enforcement observations. Pipeline Release How we move natural resources from their point of extraction to refinement and then to actual distribution is an important issue. Mishandling these products can affect human health and the environment. We move a...
Read MoreEnvironmental Regulatory Bans, Delays, and Changes
Our monthly environmental compliance tips are typically focused on daily compliance issues for the regulated community. However, it’s also important to monitor the bigger-picture environmental issues as well. Before we look at some of those larger issues we want to mention the change at Ontario Ministry of the Environment. As of June 29, 2018, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) has been renamed to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and...
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