Many thanks to Janet E for her continuing updates.
A NAFTA tribunal held Canada liable for rejecting a bid by Bilcon (an American company) to build a gravel quarry in the ecologically sensitive coastal area of Digby Neck, N.S. It is estimated that Canada would have to pay more than $500 million, just for protecting the environment in accordance with Canadian law. Details below.
UPDATE, a very important article:
UPDATE:
Subject: Re: Bilcon, NAFTA, ISDS
2018-02-15
. . . We hope to have a decision from the federal court within the next two months. Fingers crossed.
Lisa
Lisa Mitchell, Executive Director
ECELAW| lisa AT ecelaw.ca
(t) 902 670 1113
Twitter: @ecelaw
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Janet writes:
The Bilcon Digby Neck case is back in the news as the government of Canada challenges a landmark arbitral award brought under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) It will attempt to have the case set aside and environmental groups are helping. Both Sierra Club Canada and East Coast Environmental Law are acting as Intervenors with Ecojustice representing them as noted in their joint press release below from which the following statements are extracted:
The NAFTA tribunal exceeded its jurisdiction when it made determination on what a Canadian environmental assessment panel can decide, groups say
Lisa Mitchell, executive director of East Coast Environmental Law said : “If the tribunal’s decision is allowed to stand, it would signal to local communities that no matter how much damage a project might do, their concerns can be essentially overruled by a NAFTA tribunal decision, at great financial cost.”
Gretchen Fitzgerald, National Program Director of the Sierra Club Canada Foundation said “If government is committed to strengthening our environmental laws, Canada must reverse this decision and close the trade loophole in ongoing NAFTA negotiations. International trade agreements should not supersede the health of Canadians or interfere with our environmental assessment laws and protections.”
For background information on the case – see
Digby Neck Quarry Bilcon Case, Tribunal Decision and Dissent By Janet M Eaton
www.sierraclub.ca/sites/sierraclub.ca/files/JANET201505.pdf
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RELATED:
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http://www.sierraclub.ca/en/Press-Release-Bilcon-NAFTA-court-case
PRESS RELEASE FROM Ecojustice, East Coast Environmental Law, and Sierra Club Canada:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2018
Environmental groups in court to intervene in NAFTA tribunal overstep
NAFTA tribunal exceeded its jurisdiction when it made determination on what a Canadian environmental assessment panel can decide, groups say
OTTAWA — Environmental groups are in court today to help Canada challenge a landmark arbitral award brought under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Chapter 11 provision by
American corporation, Bilcon.
A NAFTA tribunal held Canada liable for rejecting a bid by Bilcon to build a gravel quarry in the ecologically sensitive coastal area of Digby Neck, N.S. It is estimated that Canada would have to pay more than $500 million, just for protecting the environment in accordance with Canadian law.
“NAFTA tribunals are only supposed to decide questions of NAFTA law,” said Amir Attaran, lawyer at Ecojustice’s law clinic at the University of Ottawa. “They have no business deciding Canadian law and least of all, ordering Canadian taxpayers to compensate an American corporation because its proposed project threatened the environment. We expect the Federal court to put the NAFTA tribunal in its proper place.”
Represented by lawyers from Ecojustice, East Coast Environmental Law (ECELAW) and the Sierra Club Canada, will appear as interveners during the legal proceedings.
“Bilcon had the opportunity to have a Canadian court rule on the federal government’s rejection of its project. Instead the company chose to sue Canada for its decision to follow an independent environmental assessment panel’s recommendation to prioritize protecting communities and the environment, and reject the quarry project,” said Lisa Mitchell, executive director of East Coast Environmental Law. “If the tribunal’s decision is allowed to stand, it would signal to local communities that no matter how much damage a project might do, their concerns can be essentially overruled by a NAFTA tribunal decision, at great financial cost.”
Bilcon’s proposal for a 120 hectare quarry on Digby Neck, N.S. was to be located 50 metres from the shoreline to facilitate shipping across the Bay of Fundy. This increase in shipping traffic in an ecologically-sensitive environment could put important species, like the endangered North Atlantic right whale in harm’s way — one of the serious threats considered by the environmental assessment panel.