Note: There is currently no Newfoundland Section. An informal report was kindly provided by John Pratt, Treasurer, NELS.

Many of the more pertinent environmental issues of the early 1990's - fuel storage, contaminated sites legislation, environmental assessment, to name the most obvious - have become back burner issues as practitioners are becoming more adept at dealing with them. It is as if the "specialized" nature of the practice has become main-stream.

There has been a lack of legislative progress on the environmental front. Apart from the proclamation of the new Environmental Assessment Act (2000), no important legislation has been introduced in the past year. While this, in and of itself, might be seen as the basis for CBA involvement, it seems that lawyers would rather react to legislation than propose it. As a consequence, much of the input at the legislation level is being made by groups like Canadian Nature Federation, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Protected Areas Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Sierra Club. Since all of these organisations have competent legal advisors (many of whom are members of CBA NELS or at least the provincial subsections), the CBA is having an indirect impact.

The most pressing environmental issues in Newfoundland at the moment are habitat protection, the completion of the provincial ecological systems plan (a long-promised and long-overdue government commitment), a revamped approach to forest practices, and better waste management legislation. These, of course, do not include federal jurisdictional matters, including SARA, completion of the National Parks System (two parks need to be established in Newfoundland - Torngat Mountains and Mealy Mountains - both in Labrador), the CEAA review, and continuing pressure for better standards of coastal and offshore environmental safety. Another continuing difficulty is the devolution of Federal authority to provincial agencies that are structurally unable to answer the bell. Without trained people and adequate resources, it is unrealistic to expect a province to take over enforcement of federal laws, particularly the Fisheries Act.

The provincial Department of Environment and Labour has expressed interest in pursuing risk-based site remediation for hydrocarbon-contaminated sites, particularly if they are industrial or non- residential in nature. Hopefully, the introduction of the risk-based approach will somewhat reduce the sometimes unnecessary burdens placed on land-owners by the more rigorous criteria-based approach. At present, the party in care, custody and control of contaminated property is responsible to government for clean-up of contamination, leaving that party with a common law remedy against the actual polluter. That remedy might be hollow if the true polluter is impecunious, unidentifiable, or if the action is time-barred. The department is taking a justifiably cautious approach to this new strategy.

A further development worth watching is the provincial government's recently expressed interest in re-opening discussions on bulk water exports.