Environmental Law Alert Blog

Through our Environmental Law Alert blog, West Coast keeps you up to date on the latest developments and issues in environmental law. This includes:

  • proposed changes to the law that will weaken, or strengthen, environmental protection;
  • stories and situations where existing environmental laws are failing to protect the environment; and
  • emerging legal strategies that could be used to protect our environment.

If you have an environmental story that we should hear about, please e-mail Andrew Gage. We welcome your comments on any of the posts to this blog – but please keep in mind our policies on comments.

2020 Canadian Law Blog Awards Winner

Shortly before the holidays, on Friday, December 15th, 2017, the BC government put out a press release about changes to the Water Sustainability Act Regulations.

Last January, The Atlantic magazine named Barack Obama “America’s Ocean President” for protecting a larger ocean area than any former commanders-in-chief.

Wild salmon just can’t seem to catch a break right now.

“WE STILL HERE!” belts out JB the First Lady in the Wise Hall. “WE STILL HERE!” echoes the audience.

The 2017 wildfire season in BC was the worst on record, both in terms of the total area burned and the costs associated with fire management and suppression.

Shocking video footage released this week by BC photographer Tavish Campbell and replayed by media across the country shows a disturbing torrent of bloody wastewater from fish farm processing plants pumping directly into the ocean.

When Randy Saugstad realized that clearcut logging by forestry giant Tolko was probably going to affect the water he uses to raise cattle on his ranch, he went to the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. “We know,” they told him. “But we don’t have the power to stop them logging.”

Here I am in the Fishmongers Hall – a historic building in the heart of London, England – honoured to be here for the Best Practices in World Fisheries conference hosted by the Blue Marine Foundation and the Fish

This week I had the opportunity to listen to the story of how the Concerned Citizens of Quesnel Lake came together to demand accountability from Mount Polley Mining Corporation in the aftermath of the Mount Polley mine disaster.

Here we are in the Lower Mainland of BC, on the river that has been referred to as “the world’s greatest salmon river,” a.k.a. the Fraser – or to use one of its more venerable names, the Stó:lō.