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Originally Posted by temple5
Isnt it the City's responsibility and not the province? Maybe I am missing something.
Isnt the sequence of events something like this...
1 - lumber or furniture biz operates on that land and some part of their wood curing process produces creosote which knowingly or unknowingly seeps in the ground.
2 - City buys the land
3 - previous owners no longer have business interests in the province and are HQ in QC
4 - City finds creosote on land - cannot sue because company has no operations in QC
5 - residents across the river freak out because it may have migrated across the river and contaminate their properties so AB environment tests.
6 - not sure who (should be the citys problem since they own the land) but someone pays for mitigation to contain the site to the south side of the river
7 - City doesnt have the money for this cleanup and province is probably like to fkn way is that my problem so city asks province to attempt to sue this company somehow.
8 - Calgary Next...
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It's the provincial government's job to pursue collection from Domtar. The province suggests its next to impossible to enforce Alberta's environmental laws outside the province, so they haven't pursued it.
But by all accounts, legal experts agree that the province is being "unduly pessimistic". Recent cases have allowed provinces to enforce provincial law extra-provincially.
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“Companies definitely tend to fight these provisions and it may be there is a reluctance by the province to engage in that fight,” Collins said.
“It makes no sense that you can sell a contaminated site and move to the province next door and your liability is eclipsed.”
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http://calgaryherald.com/news/politi...te-experts-say
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Jillian Henderson, a spokeswoman for the city, said in an emailed statement that Calgary had not sought compensation from the Canada Creosote Co. for the contamination. “The province is the appropriate regulatory agency to determine responsible parties,” she said.
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“In 1997, a Release Agreement was signed between the Province and the City stating the Canada Creosote site contamination was not caused or contributed to by the City,” a statement on the city’s website reads.
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http://business.financialpost.com/le...-a-third-party
The Province is the one with responsibility of determining who pays for the clean-up (atleast, environmental legislation is responsible in forcing the party to clean it up).
It looks like if the province comes to the city and says, you need to pay for this, the city would have a pretty good argument against that demand.
The Province is the one people should be pointing their fingers at in this situation. Given that the NDP has been pushing enforcement of environmental issues since their time in office (i have personally been involved in a few), the province's reluctance here is strange.
Given the expected costs, a few hundred thousand on legal costs to obtain and enforce judgment on Domtar isn't that big.