Recent and Upcoming Forest
Legislation Amendments
On June 26, changes to the Forest and Range Practices Act by 2019 Bill 21 were brought into force by B.C. Reg. 163/2023. These amendments introduce the concept of ecological communities to the Act, with the intent of protecting rare and endangered species and habitats. Bill 21 also introduces requirements for publicly available forest operations maps that include the approximate locations of proposed cutblocks and roads.

On July 15, provisions of 2021 Bill 28, the Forest Amendment Act, 2021 will come into force. These amendments add Parts 15 to 19 to the Forest Act, which will allow areas of Crown land to be designated as special purpose areas, for an access purpose, for a non-timber production purpose, or for one or more first nation purposes, BCTS licence purposes or community forest agreement purposes. The bill also provides for compensation to certain licence or permit holders who may be impacted by special purpose areas. Other amendments authorize the reduction to allowable annual cuts of forest licences for the purposes of entering into forest licences with first nations or entering into BCTS licences. Quickscribe will have these amendments consolidated once they come into force.

The 'Polluter Pays' Principle: Proposed Amendments to the Environmental
Management Act May Usher in a New Era for B.C. Industrial Companies
British Columbia is taking a major legislative step towards requiring industrial companies to pay for a significant scale of environmental cleanup if their projects are abandoned.

The province is proposing amendments to its Environmental Management Act, SBC 2003, c 53 (the EMA) that will enable the government to collect, use, and enforce financial assurance requirements through future regulations.

A primer on the EMA
The EMA is one of the primary pieces of legislation governing environmental protection in B.C. It regulates industrial and municipal waste discharge, pollution, hazardous waste and contaminated site remediation. And importantly, it has teeth. The EMA enables the use of permits, regulations and codes of practice to authorize discharges to the environment, and it provides for enforcement tools, such as administrative penalties, orders, and fines to encourage compliance. The EMA has been amended several times in recent years to reflect changes in environmental policy and to address emerging environmental issues.

Read the full article by Jennifer Fairfax, Deirdre A. Sheehan, Emily MacKinnon and Elie Laskin with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.

B.C. Must Urgently Change Forest Strategies or
Face More Wildfire Disasters: Report
British Columbia's independent forests watchdog is calling for the provincial government to make critical changes to how it manages forests to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.

The report, released Thursday [June 29] by the B.C. Forest Practices Board, says risk mitigation currently focuses on areas near communities, but leaves the wider forest landscape "severely vulnerable."

It comes as the largest wildfire in the province's history, the Donnie Creek wildfire, continues to burn out of control in the remote northeast.

"The key is there's an urgency to this," board chair Keith Atkinson said in an interview. "We're obviously experiencing, maybe, our most severe year in front of us." Read the BIV article.

Amendments to CEPA Alter Toxic Substance Management and
Chemical Control and Provide Right to Healthy Environment
On June 13, 2023, Bill S-5, Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act ("Bill S-5" or the "Act"), received Royal Assent becoming law and modernizing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act ("CEPA").

CEPA regulates pollution and toxic substances in Canada. Among other changes, the Act will provide Canadians with the right to a healthy environment and will further regulate the management of certain toxic substances and chemicals.

Canadians have right to a healthy environment
The preamble to CEPA now recognizes that every individual in Canada has a right to a healthy environment. Although the province of Quebec previously recognized a right to a healthy environment,‎ the ‎recognition of this right in CEPA is unprecedented in Canadian federal legislation. ‎

CEPA now requires responsible Ministers to develop an implementation framework and to conduct research, studies and monitoring activities to support the federal government in protecting this right.

Read the full article by Amy Pressman, Stephanie Wright and Jason Lin (Articling Student) with DLA Piper.

Province, Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council Reach
New Shared Decision-Making Agreement
A new agreement between the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council (NNTC), its member communities and the provincial government aims to strengthen a collaborative government-to-government relationship on shared decision-making in Nlaka'pamux territory.

The Land and Resource Decision Making Agreement (LRDMA) is intended to support reconciliation and refine processes for land and resource decision-making that advance the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and implements shared decision-making. Read the BC Government news release.

Logging Reduction Aims to Save
Threatened B.C. Seabird
The B.C. government has dropped the amount of wood that can be legally cut in a corner of Vancouver Island vital to the recovery of the marbled murrelet – a migratory seabird threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act.

On Monday [June 26], the Ministry of Forests said it was ordering a 19 per cent decrease in the annual allowable cut of Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 44, a swath of forest straddling the Alberni Inlet near Barkley Sound. The province said it adjusted the harvest licence as a buffer to help recover the marbled murrelet, a species that nests in coastal old-growth forests. Read the BIV article.

Part 1 – Current and Consequences: Understanding
Environmental Impacts of Transmission Lines
This is part 1 of a series dedicated to providing insight into the common challenges that can occur in the procurement and construction of electric transmission facility projects.

In 2016, the Canadian government announced that it was going to invest $180 billion in infrastructure as part of its Long-Term Infrastructure Plan. Part of that plan included the Smart Grid Program, a $100 million investment program intended to allow the Canadian government to partner with Canadian companies to accelerate the development of so-called "smart grids," which are meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while leveraging current infrastructure to modernize the safe and efficient delivery of electricity to customers. In order to accommodate increased demand for electricity, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the size of the electricity system will not only need to grow significantly, but it will also need to become more efficient as well. Accordingly, there will likely need to be significant construction, alteration or expansion of electric transmission facilities to move renewable power from one location to the other. As a result of the environmental impacts that will inherently be suffered as a result of the construction of these electric transmission facilities, contractors are likely to face unique challenges in undertaking such construction.

In this series of articles, we will highlight, explain, and provide insight into some common challenges regarding transmission facility procurement and construction. Each article will focus on key considerations that contractors should be aware of if they anticipate bidding on electric transmission facility projects.

In this first installment, we will provide an overview of the main types of electric transmission facilities and their environmental impacts on land and wildlife, as well as certain legal implications of those impacts. Read the full article by Stela Hima Bailey, Erin Cutts, Emma Morgan and Farrukh Ahmad with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.

Considering the Impacts of Brush
Management on Moose
Moose are one of the largest herbivores in North American forests and are an iconic species in British Columbia and throughout their circumpolar range. They are ecologically, culturally, and economically important for a variety of reasons. They are important to many communities as a hunted species for food and serve a variety of social and ceremonial purposes. Multiple factors act to regulate moose populations, but many of these (e.g. winter severity, parasites, and disease) are generally out of the direct control of humans. One important factor humans can and do directly influence is habitat quantity and quality, specifically food and cover. Interestingly, wildlife managers working under the Wildlife Act in BC have no legislative ability to manage moose habitats on crown land – it is forest professionals who control what happens to moose habitats over much of BC, so forest professionals can have profound impacts on population trends. Read the full article by Roy V. Rea and Olav Hjeljord in the Summer 2023 issue of the BC Forest Professional magazine.

Environmental Appeal Board Decisions
The following Environmental Appeal Board decisions were made recently:

Environmental Management Act

• GT Farms Ltd. v. Director, Environmental Management Act [Method Of Hearing – To Proceed as Written Hearings]

Water Sustainability Act

• Just Fish-Inn Inc. v. Assistant Water Manager [Stay Application – Denied]

Wildlife Act

• Brandon Ponath v. Director of Fish and Wildlife, Ministry of Forests [Dismissal Order – Appeal Dismissed]
• John Vandene v. Logan Wenham, Acting Director of Fish and Wildlife, Ministry of Forests [Final Decision – Confirmed]

Visit the Environmental Appeal Board website for more information.