Vol 12, 2018 Dec

It's amazing what a small but focused staff team can accomplish with the energy and skills of student, lawyer and community partners. In this newsletter, we step back to reflect on highlights from the past year. Virtually each month we released law reform recommendations, delivered a submission, hosted an event, or received word about how projects from previous terms had or continue to have an impact. While we can only share details about some of our client-based work, this list gives a great overview of what we do at the ELC.

As an organization that must raise all of its funding, we invite you to celebrate these accomplishments with us, because we sure couldn’t do it without you!
 

Together, we are making a difference. Thank you so much for your support.

• Provided recommendations in response to the provincial government’s Agricultural Waste Control Regulation Review Intentions Paper.
• Conducted an online evaluation survey for students who completed the Clinic between 2008 and 2015. Twenty-five percent of the students we were able to reach participated in the survey.
• Welcomed 12 new students to the ELC Spring Clinic and a new articled student.
• Hosted an ELC Associates Program teleconference on the topic of private prosecutions.

• Supported ELC Club students in a one-day Research-a-thon, which involved staff, librarians, local practitioners, and over 50 students from four law schools, resulting in a comprehensive report and timeline of mining law and contamination events in BC.
• Discovered that Canada’s Information Commissioner’s investigation in response to our 2013 report asking whether the federal government was muzzling scientists determined that we were right: the federal government violated policies that effectively muzzled scientists in ways that prevented them from responding to the public’s request for information.
• Hosted an event to screen the film Albatross and discuss solutions to marine plastics pollution.
• Made submissions to a municipal council about the importance of developing a long-term plan for accessing public waterfront land.

• Worked with the other public interest environmental law organizations in BC to create a consensus statement on a new approach to environmental assessment. This followed up on our work from 2010, when the ELC reviewed EA in BC, noted its weaknesses, and provided 27 recommendations for reform.
• Asked BC’s Auditor General to examine the government’s apparent failure to regulate placer mining effectively.
• Released our National Strategy to Combat Marine Plastic Pollution: A Blueprint for Federal Action.
• Requested that the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development and the Auditor General examine Canada’s failure to protect endangered Pacific salmon and anadromous trout species under the Species at Risk Act.
• Welcomed Megan Webber as our new administrative assistant.
• Hosted an ELC Associates Program teleconference on the topic of mining and human rights.

• Learned that Ancient Forest Alliance is campaigning with Conservation North Society to get the ELC-developed Old Growth Forest Act legislated. The 2013 report makes recommendations for retaining old growth based on the best available science, phasing out logging according to risk, and establishing a system of old growth reserves.
• Discovered from a client that that the Township of Esquimalt has listed the ELC’s report Re-inventing Rainwater Management as Required Policy in the Infrastructure - water, sewer and storm water section of their Resource Library.
• Developed model legislation to amend the Environmental Management Act to ban waste disposal over sand and gravel pits, limestone quarries and highly sensitive aquifers, which was used as the basis of a Private Member’s Bill calling for such a ban that was introduced in the BC Legislature.
• Learned that, partly in response to our request, the Canadian government took the first step toward issuing an emergency order to protect reindeer immediately north of the US border.
• Made recommendations to the provincial government to address concerns over the only operational gun range a provincial park in the province.
• Saw Clinic student and instructor research included in the First Nations Fisheries Council report Protecting Water Our Way: First Nations Freshwater Governance in British Columbia.
• Released a report to support development standards that are ecologically sustainable and support strategies for a healthy watershed.
• Welcomed six new students into our condensed Summer ELC Clinic.
• Conducted an interview process to hire our 2019-20 round of Articled Students.

• Learned that a UNESCO World Heritage Committee submission we assisted the Mikisew Cree prepare that outlined how Canada’s largest National Park was under threat resulted in a Strategic Environmental Assessment Report confirming that Wood Buffalo Park is in danger.
• Asked BC’s Auditor General to conduct an audit and examination of grazing leases on Crown land.
• Shared our 2017-18 Annual Report.

• Learned how our 2015 report on professional reliance and environmental regulation in BC contributed to the provincial government’s independent review on Professional Reliance, prepared by former ELC staff lawyer Mark Haddock.
• Heard that the Lower Mainland Local Government Association passed a motion to have the province fund fish-friendly infrastructure as recommended in our October 2017 report.
• Provided recommendations to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to change their road maintenance policy in order to save bird populations.

• Learned that submissions to a local government that we prepared on behalf of a community group encouraging a local government to protect drinking water led to resolutions and the hiring of a hydrogeologist consultant.
• Welcomed our new articled student.
• Evaluated the responses to our Clinic evaluation survey, drafted a comprehensive report to the board, as well as a public Executive Summary.

• Discovered that the government is looking into our request to examine Canada’s failure to protect endangered Pacific salmon and anadromous trout species under the Species at Risk Act.
• Welcomed 12 new students into the ELC Fall Clinic.
• Hosted an At the Table event (sponsored by the Vancouver Foundation) to answer questions about the ELC and listen to students views on the most pressing environmental concerns.
• Co-hosted a workshop in Kamloops as part of our Mining Law Reform Partnership project that involved participants from over 40 NGO, eNGO and Indigenous groups throughout the province to workshop our mining law reform platform. We expect to release the edited platform in late 2018 or early 2019.

• Received the provincial government report developed in response to ELC submissions about the Hullcar Valley drinking water pollution problem. The report calls for continuing comprehensive actions in the Hullcar Valley to prevent future pollution of the aquifer, the provision of a new drinking water source to our clients, and assistance to farmers to use cleaner technology.
• Released recommendations for incorporating community-based water monitoring and decision making into Canada’s water monitoring framework.
• Responded to the federal government’s new measures to protect orca by noting that such a small population needs drastic measures to survive. Back in 2011, the ELC made recommendations to protect orca.
• Hired a coop student for January 2019.
• Hosted an ELC Associates meeting on professional reliance, which happened to coincide with the provincial government tabling Bill 49 Professional Governance Act, which adopts some of the 121 recommendations made in Mark Haddock’s review and the ELC’s 2015 report on professional reliance and environmental regulation in BC.

• Hosted an ELC Associates teleconference on Indigenous Laws.
• Completed a report on wetlands protection for a First Nation that wants to protect wetlands in their territory.
• Performed cross-campus consultations on our Clinic course.
• Celebrated how our contributions led to Parliament unanimously passing motion M-151 to deal with marine plastics.
• Celebrated the court decision on public access to a public lake (Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club) on which ELC have provided assistance since 2011.

No wonder we are tired, right?! And our work continues: as we wrap up the year, we are finishing projects from the Fall Clinic and developing the case roster for our 12 new Spring ELC Clinic students.

Thank you to our Board members and UVic Law who provide guidance and support. Many thanks also to our individual supporters (your holiday greetings are in the mail) and the foundations that funded our work this past year:

• The Law Foundation of British Columbia
• North Growth Foundation
• Sitka Foundation
• Oasis Foundation
• Tides Canada
• Boreal Songbird Initiative.

With your help, 2019 will be even better.