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Environmental laws regulate activities that may have adverse impacts on human health and the natural environment. Regulated activities typically require valid licences, permits, and other authorizations before work can be undertaken, and may dictate how work is to be undertaken or simply require all reasonable effort to avoid prohibited acts. These laws can be enforced by penalties or quasi-criminal prosecutions which may lead to fines and imprisonment of individuals. We are experienced in advising on environmental issues including Regulatory Defence for violations of environmental laws, federal land use planning and environmental assessment laws, due diligence and training, crisis management, transportation of dangerous goods, hazardous and nonhazardous waste, and contaminated sites. We have extensive experience in fisheries and aquaculture industries, transportation industry, and large scale construction projects.

Legislation and regulations govern countless aspects of daily life as well as work, the workplace, and the environment. These laws apply whether or not you are aware of them, and if broken can result in significant financial fines, administrative penalties, and even imprisonment of individuals including employees, officers and directors. The Criminal Code of Canada places specific legal duties on anyone who undertakes or has authority to direct how another person does work or performs tasks to take reasonable measures to prevent bodily harm to others. We can help you develop processes to ensure you are taking all reasonable measures to ensure compliance with applicable laws. Inspections will be less likely to lead to investigations and enforcement actions against you.

If enforcement actions have already been started against you or are anticipated, we are experienced in representing clients subject to criminal and quasi-criminal investigations, including the execution of search warrants and interviewing of witnesses, in communications with investigators and Crown prosecutors, and in court. We have counseled clients engaged in transportation and large scale construction projects in respect of workplace fatalities and serious incidents, and environmental accidents. We provide strategic advice proactively to ensure you are taking reasonable steps to comply with applicable laws, and to manage legal risks following an incident and through investigations and court proceedings.

Occupational Health and Safety laws regulate the workplace, whether in the office or at a remote working camp. Generally, legislation creates the legal duty of employers to ensure the safety and wellbeing of others in the workplace and the rights of employees to refuse unsafe work, and regulations may establish detailed requirements for what must and must not be done in order to comply with the legal duty. These requirements can be enforced by penalties, or quasi-criminal prosecutions which may lead to fines and imprisonment of individuals. The Criminal Code of Canada also places additional legal duties on anyone who undertakes or has authority to direct how another person does work or performs tasks to take reasonable measures to prevent bodily harm to others. We are experienced in advising on occupational health and safety issues including Regulatory Defence for violations of health and safety laws and regulations, workplace fatalities and serious incidents, due diligence and training, and crisis management. We have represented employers facing administrative penalties for workplace safety violations before the WorkSafeBC Review Division and Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal, and in judicial review proceedings.

Transportation Law relates to the movement of people and goods from one place to another, whether locally or across borders, and is heavily regulated. We have advised clients on matters relating to transportation by road, rail, and water including shipping in the Arctic. A single accident may have wide-ranging repercussions, particularly where there is a loss of human life or the release of a dangerous substance into the environment, and we have advised clients facing investigations and enforcement actions relating to such accidents. Furthermore, we have acted as counsel to an entity tasked with consulting First Nations on the risks and benefits economic activities including transportation may bring. Our experience in Transportation Law includes Occupational Health & Safety Law and Environmental Law matters, Land Use Planning Law, Environmental Assessment, Administrative Law, Aboriginal Law, Regulatory Defence, and civil litigation. We have acted as counsel to an administrative decision maker reviewing proposed transportation infrastructure projects including roads, railways, marine shipping and icebreaking in the Arctic.

We have acted as general counsel to a First Nations entity established with responsibilities to oversee and guide the use and development of resources on treaty lands including waters and wildlife. We regularly advise on environmental and land use planning law, procedural fairness in administrative hearings, and consultation rights, as well as employment law issues, contracts, access to information requests and confidentiality of information, and corporate governance.

Land use planning focuses on controlling and directing land uses in a defined planning area. The law of land use planning ensures that planning decisions are made by authorities in a fair manner so that affected landowners and other affected parties have the opportunity to make their views known before a final decision is made. Increasingly, authorities with land use planning powers are moving to the forefront of the climate change issue by identifying the impacts of climate change at a local level and guiding future development to adapt to those impacts. As counsel to a First Nations entity established with responsibilities to oversee and guide the use and development of resources on treaty lands including waters and wildlife, we have advised on consultation with First Nations and providing procedural fairness when planning hearings on land use plans, drafted rules of procedure, and advised on various pre-hearing matters. We have also advised on the implementation of plans in respect of treaty lands.

If customers can’t find it, it doesn’t exist. Clearly list and describe the services you offer. Also, be sure to showcase a premium service.Few people can prepare themselves to act in a calm and deliberate manner when an accident, incident, or other unforeseen event occurs that may have significant impacts to a corporation’s reputation or legal rights. We provide independent and objective counsel to manage crises internally, and to help establish communications protocols to minimize legal risks that may arise from the crisis. Involving legal counsel early ensures you are able to fully investigate and communicate the facts to us for the purpose of seeking legal advice without concern that those communications will later be used as evidence against you. We have counseled clients subject to search warrants, regulatory compliance officers conducting employee interviews, and detailed investigations related to various workplace incidents including fatalities, environmental incidents, and transportation matters.

Directors and officers can themselves be held personally liable for the actions by the corporate entity. In particular, if Environmental Laws and Occupational Health and Safety Laws are breached, officers and directors may themselves face charges, fines and imprisonment. We advise on the roles and personal responsibilities of officers and directors to minimize the corporation’s legal risks, as well as their personal risks. We have advised boards on procedurally fair investigations and hearings relating to alleged misconduct by a director. We have also drafted corporate governance bylaws and rules and advise on parliamentary procedures used in board meetings.

We regularly advise a treaty-established First Nations entity on providing procedural fairness in its administrative proceedings, and have acted as counsel in judicial reviews before the B.C. Supreme Court, the Nunavut Court of Justice, and the Federal Courts of Canada in various matters including First Nations funding agreements, Occupational Health & Safety Laws, and Ministerial decision making. We also acted as counsel to a participant in the federal commission of inquiry into the decline of the Fraser River sockeye salmon.