Update On Directors’ And Officers’ Environmental Liability: Lessons From Northstar Aerospace

The recent Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) case of Baker et al. v. Director, Ministry of the Environment (Northstar) raised more than a few eyebrows when former directors and officers of Northstar Aerospace, Inc. (Company) and its parent, Northstar Aerospace (Canada) Inc., were held personally liable by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) for contamination at the now insolvent Company's former manufacturing and processing facility in Cambridge, Ontario (Site). The environmental contamination arose from the migration of trichloroethylene from the Site to nearby residential properties, which resulted from the Company's aircraft parts manufacturing activities at the Site from 1981 to 2009. The Company commenced voluntary remediation of the Site in 2005, but no funding was set aside for the multi-million-dollar remediation work. After the Company began to encounter financial difficulties, the MOE issued a remediation order in March 2012 to secure continued