BC Supreme Court Protects Jurisdiction of Environmental Appeal Board

In a recent decision striking out various parts of a petition for judicial review, Justice Donegan of the BC Supreme Court confirmed the expert role of the Environmental Appeal Board to hear appeals on a variety of environmental matters, and held that the Courts only had a limited supervisory role in reviewing decisions of the Board.   Justice Donegan noted that the Provincial Legislature had specifically chosen to entrust the Board with that broad jurisdiction, and that choice, combined with the tribunal’s established expertise,  meant that the courts should generally defer to the Board’s decisions, and be careful not to substitute  the courts’  view of the evidence and issues for that of the Board.   Underhill, Boies Parker, Gage & Latimer LLP were counsel for the Environmental Appeal Board on this application.

The decision can be found here:  Lindelauf v. British Columbia, 2017 BCSC 626

BC Supreme Court upholds expertise of Environmental Appeal Board

The BC Supreme Court has once again held that on the Court must give decisions of the Environmental Appeal Board substantial deference on judicial review.  In doing so, Justice MacKenzie rejected arguments aimed at narrowing the Court's understanding of the Board's expertise and applying the "general question" exception to the presumption of reasonableness. In upholding the Board's substantive decision Justice MacKenzie also confirmed the way in which the deferential standard of reasonableness ought to be applied by the reviewing court.  Robin Gage was counsel for the Environmental Appeal Board in this judicial review hearing.    

The Court's decision can be found here: Harrison Hydro Project Inc. v. Environmental Appeal Board, 2017 BCSC 320