The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50818
REAL ESTATE Provinces respond with Land reclamation their hands these days could be well spent catching up on developments in environ- mental legislation affecting brownfields. Provincial initiatives across the coun- W try have been quickly evolving over recent years, propelled largely by scien- tific advancements. Whether it's the com- plexities to ascertain liabilities for land contamination or the requisite qualifica- tions of environmental consultants who are responsible for providing soil and water tests, circumstances surrounding such transactions have been in a state of flux. The caveats involved in facilitating a purchase on behalf of a vendor or buyer can leave lawyers at a disadvantage. "It's a rapidly changing area," affirms Bernie Miller, managing partner and hile there may be a lull in trans- actional work, any extra time real property lawyers have on regulatory advancements BY DARY L- LYNN CARLSON efforts rise CEO of McInnes Cooper's Moncton, N.B., office, where he was instrumental in establishing the firm's environmental law practice. In Atlantic Canada, environment ministry officials over the past decade have co-ordinated efforts to standardize contaminated land remediation and the related liabilities throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. They introduced a regime called the Atlantic Risk Based Corrective Action, which is an adaptation of the RBCA process developed during the past decade in the United States. It includes computer software, training, and risk-assessment procedures based on those introduced by the American Society for Testing and Materials, the equivalent to the Canadian Standards Association. The impetus for co-ordinating efforts between environment ministries followed a huge reclamation project in Moncton involving Canadian National rail lands. "That really prompted the New Brunswick government to see the larger opportunity of having a regulatory regime that encour- aged the redevelopment and reuse of for- merly contaminated sites," says Miller. "All the provinces have come on board and that has some positives from the point of view of encouraging property transactions and better use of municipal infrastructure." While there is a significant degree of uniformity among the Atlantic prov- inces, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick are forging ahead with further changes to tweak their laws and provide clarity, prompting Miller to note, "In our jurisdiction and I think across Canada, there's a desire to bring a higher level of certainty into the process." www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JULY 2009 21 HUAN TRAN