Intelligence

Environmental laws across Canada permit property owners and tenants to recover compensation from those who caused or contributed to contamination at the claimant’s property or caused some other type of loss.

The amendments streamline multi-agency processes by designating a single responsible authority for each project and enabling one unified federal approval and the creation of a Transportation Project Office.

Ontario has launched its first call for expressions of interest in carbon capture and storage licences under the new Geologic Carbon Storage Act, targeting Crown-owned pore space beneath lakebeds surrounding the Ontario Peninsula. The detailed submission requirements reveal expectations that proponents have advanced well beyond initial planning stages, with the process serving as a critical test of Ontario's emerging CCS framework and its attractiveness to industry.

On August 29, 2026, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) published two notices under section 71 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA) requiring certain businesses that manufactured, imported or used listed substances during the 2025 calendar year to submit information to ECCC.

Quebec has dramatically increased minimum environmental fines for designated industrial activities by a factor of ten, with penalties now reaching up to $300,000 per day for contaminant releases. These changes, effective August 13, 2026, apply to nine categories of industrial operations including aluminum smelters, mines, cement plants, and chemical facilities, with fines doubling on first recidivism and tripling thereafter.

Although there is debate about whether the world is suffering from climate change, according to a 2024 United Nations survey, 80 percent of people worldwide want their country to do more about it. Based on measurements of the world’s glaciers, there is certainly scientific evidence that they have receded each year for the past 37 years and that they are melting faster than ever.