Introducing An Environmental Expert's Opinion On Judicial Review

 On January 18, 2018 the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Sorflaten v. Nova Scotia (Environment) (2018) NSSC 7 refused to admit the expert opinion of Dr. Douglas J. Hallett, a toxicologist, relating to certain environmental aspects of a Ministerial approved pilot project for burning recycled tires as fuel at a cement plant owned by Lafarge Canada.

Grounds for Introduction

The Court reiterated the general rule that the introduction of evidence extraneous to the record in a judicial review was exceptional and confined to four categories: lack of jurisdiction, bias, breach of procedural fairness and natural justice and fraud.

Applicants Arguments

The Applicants contended that the evidence of Dr. Hallett was admissible because the project approved by the Minister, i.e. introducing whole tires into the middle of the kiln, was not the project put before the Minister i.e. introducing crumbled tires at the fuel entry point. The Court rejected this argument on the