Posts by Iler Campbell LLP

Registration for Tools Conference 2011 now open!

October 13th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

We’ve just launched our website for Tools 2011 and opened up registrations. Check out www.toolsconference.ca for all the details.

Tools 2011 promises top training opportunities for board, management, staff, community groups and citizen activists in 2011.

For more than a decade between the late 1990s and 2006, Iler Campbell and Prentice Yates and Clark sponsored annual Tools conferences. These were well attended and provided participants with a chance to learn from experts and share vital resources and information.

This year, we’re bringing Tools back. Our goal, as always, is to provide valuable, timely and practical information and training, to further enhance your organization’s effectiveness and help meet your goals. We continue to keep the fee as low as possible, so that cost is not a barrier for any organization.

Consultations on Approvals for the New Nuclear Plants at Darlington: what have we learned so far?

September 19th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

Construction of new nuclear plants at Darlington has been a controversial issue for the past five years and only more so after the tragic meltdown at Fukushima, Japan. The handling of the various consultation processes for the Darlington nuclear approvals has been an extremely complex, fascinating and frustrating odyssey thus far. It highlights some of the flaws and limitations in public consultations for environmental approvals processes for massive infrastructure projects involving expenditures of billions of dollars. This article provides a brief summary of some of the main public policy developments and related approvals processes to date and explores some of the lessons we have learned so far.

Funding for Public Participation and Access to Justice: Where Are We in 2011?

August 17th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

When the Intervenor Funding Project Act (IFPA) expired in 1996 there was concern that access to environmental justice would be seriously affected in Ontario and there is growing evidence that this has happened. Under IFPA, environmental groups and individuals were able to better contribute to tribunal hearings under the Environment Assessment Act and other laws because of financial assistance provided to them. We argue that participant and intervenor funding for participation in approval processes such as those created by the Environmental Protection Act, Environmental Bill of Rights, the Planning Act, the Endangered Species Act, 2007 and the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 would be beneficial and promote better decision making by government ministries and proponents. Early participation in planning can avoid surprises and controversies for decision-makers at later stages in the approval process.

Read the full article (pdf).

Duty to accommodate in Small Workplaces: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

August 9th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

Small, non-profit employers frequently come to us with the impression that human rights laws do not apply to them. All employers, no matter how small or underfunded, have a duty not to discriminate and to accommodate individuals who may be experiencing discrimination in the workplace.

Continue reading “Duty to accommodate in Small Workplaces: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”

Paula Boutis in the OBA’s Environews

July 14th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

Paula Boutis has an article, written with David McRobert, in the July issue of the Ontario Bar Association’s Environews newsletter. In it, they describe the arguments recently put before the Divisional Court in a judicial review of a decision of the Ontario government to grant a permit under the Endangered Species Act, 2007 for a controversial bridge project at the Detroit-Windsor border crossing.

Read it here (pdf).

Brian Iler joins the Ontario government’s Advisory Committee on the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010

June 16th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

It’s been almost exactly a year since we last wrote about the Not‑for‑Profit Corporations Act, 2010. This time we’ve just a quick note to let you know that Brian has joined the Ontario government’s new Advisory Committee on the Not‑for‑Profit Corporations Act, 2010. He will be representing the Center for Social Innovation.