Mark Youden is an associate in Gowling WLG's Vancouver office, practising in the firm's Environmental, Aboriginal Law and Corporate Commercial Law groups. He advises a wide range of clients on Aboriginal, environmental assessment and regulatory issues for energy and natural resource projects. Mark provides specialist advice and solutions on all aspects of environmental law including management of contaminated land and environmental litigation. He also assists clients with reducing and managing their environmental risks and liabilities, and assists with transactional environmental due diligence. Prior to studying law, Mark obtained an M.Sc. in Environmental Science, and worked as an environmental consultant for an international engineering firm. Mark's scientific expertise and multidisciplinary approach help him provide clients with practical solutions to complex environmental and Aboriginal law matters.
Wally Braul is a partner in Gowling WLG's Advocacy Group and is one of Western Canada’s most highly regarded energy, Indigenous law and environmental lawyers. He has extensive experience and expertise defending Fisheries Act prosecutions, contamination sites and water law litigation and advising on oil spill emergencies. Wally has been repeatedly recognized by Lexpert as a leading lawyer, and by The Best Lawyers in Canada and Who’s Who Legal as one of Canada’s foremost environmental lawyers.
Dionysios (Dino) Rossi is a partner at the Vancouver office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, where he practices in the areas of shipping and maritime law and environmental law.
He has represented and advised clients (including forestry companies, oil and gas companies, mining companies, commercial and residential property owners, and property insurers), on a wide range of environmental law matters in the litigation, regulatory and transactional contexts. These include: cost-recovery proceedings, pollution-related matters (air, water, and soil), spill response incidents, regulatory compliance issues, prosecutions, the environmental assessment process (federal and provincial), and the allocation of environmental risks and liabilities in a wide range of commercial agreements.
Dionysios frequently speaks and publishes on the subject of environmental law. He has been interviewed by Global News Television on the subject of ship-source pollution. His work has appeared in general interest publications such as the Vancouver Sun and Business in Vancouver, trade publications such as Western Mariner and The Environmental Managers Association of British Columbia Journal, legal publications such as the Irwin Law Maritime Law survey text, The Transportation Lawyer, The Lawyers Weekly, and in various Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia works.
A Lawyer’s Guide to Marine Emergency Spill Response
In recent times, there have been relatively few large spills in Canada’s west coast waters, however given the increased volume of shipping and pressure from proposed marine transportation projects, regulators have taken a keen interest in marine spill response. This is evidenced by Prime Minister Trudeau’s recently announced ocean protection plan (self described as the “most significant investment ever made to protect our oceans and coastlines” at the cost of $1.5 billion). The plan includes funding for increased coast guard capacity, new rescue stations, tougher rules on marine polluters, and Indigenous community response teams.
Canada’s current marine spill response regime is based on the ‘polluter pay principle’, which requires the polluter (or the Responsible Party) to take full responsibility for the cost of cleaning up any damages caused by an oil spill. This principle is supported by both industry, the federal and provincial governments. Since the regime relies on many partners, collaboration is key to an efficient, effective and successful response. Practically speaking, this means partners from different organizations and jurisdictions taking an active role in initial response efforts but also collaboration in post-response assessment and monitoring. On paper, the regulatory regime seems straight forward, but in practice the emergency setting can make even the simplest activities complicated. Our presentation will cover the most pressing issues to unfold following a marine spill and provide best practices from recent west coast spill case studies.