The environmental legal and regulatory landscape is a busy one right now, particularly where it pertains to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental and climate change disclosure. However, over the course of a year, much of what we hear about is primarily noise - small steps toward legislation or political jockeying for influence in legislation that may be a year or more away. This makes a book like Key Developments in Environmental Law a useful — and usefully slim — reference volume.

In ten concise chapters, editors Stanley Berger and Dianne Saxe have brought together leading Canadian lawyers to explain developments in environmental and climate change disclosure; Canadian and Quebec legal frameworks for GHG emissions; resource revenue sharing and consultation requirements; regulation of cooling water intake structures; the Kearl Oil Sands cases; government liability for historic clean-ups; comments on St. Lawrence Cement Inc. v. Barrette; remediation; environmental approvals in Ontario; and leave to appeal authority under Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights.  

Chapter one is a good example of the value that this book offers. Written by Alfred Page, Adam Chamberlain and John Vellone, it reviews significant developments in environmental disclosure under securities law.  The chapter includes a review of the Ontario Securities Commission’s review of continuous disclosure requirements related to environmental matters under National Instrument 51-102; the CICA’s guidance for directors and managers of public companies regarding climate change disclosures in their MD&A statements; and a summary of climate change policy commitments and initiatives taking place across Canada. The authors are very thorough in their presentation of the facts and offer their perspective on what it all means for public companies, investors, regulators and professional advisers.

In contrast, Chapter 5 addresses the very specific issue of the Kearl Oil Sands cases in northeastern Alberta. These cases clarify that federal environmental assessment panels must provide "logical, coherent reasons explaining their conclusions about the ’significance’ of environmental effects." (For an excerpt of this chapter, click here.)

The book is a balance of potentially critical individual cases of note, and chapters that address broader issues. Chapter 2 addresses the Canadian and Quebec legal framework for greenhouse gas emissions, while Chapter 3 addresses how environmental law has evolved with the evolution of Aboriginal legal principles, and the duty to consult and accommodate Aboriginal peoples who may be impacted by development.

For any individual looking for a useful snapshot of the key environmental law issues of the day, this is an effective tool to have at your side.

Key Developments in Environmental Law, 2008-2009 Edition, is published by Canada Law Book. For more information visit www.canadalawbook.ca.

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