Natural Resources Law
Submitted by Section Secretary/Treasurer, Mark Oulton
Summary of Meetings
Number of Meetings Held: 5
November 28, 2013
Guest Speakers: Peter Jarvis, Senior Counsel (North America), Ausenco Engineering, Marilyn Mauritz, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, International Forest Products Limited, and Joe Page, Adrian Law, formerly with Rio Tinto Alcan and Bull Housser & Tupper LLP
Meeting Title/Topic: Dealing with External Counsel: An In-House Counsel Perspective
Synopsis: This was an interactive discussion on practice management with a panel of three in-house counsels from the natural resource sector. The panelists discussed their insights on lessons learned from dealing with external counsel.
March 13, 2014
Guest Speaker: Billy Garton, Bull Housser & Tupper LLP
Meeting Title/Topic: Forest Tenures 101 - An Introduction to Forest Tenures in British Columbia
Synopsis: Mr. Garton provided a general overview of the forest tenure regime that is in place for BC, as set out in the Forest Act.
April 24, 2014
Guest Speaker: Dave Petersen, Chief Forester and Assistant Deputy Minister Tenures, Competitiveness & Innovation Division of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
Meeting Title/Topic: Top Regulator - An intro to One of BC's Top Natural Resource Bureaucrats
Synopsis: The Chief Forester provided an overview and engaged in discussion that touched on a variety of topics affecting the forest industry today, including tenure reform, mountain pine beetle, mill dust, resource roads and bio products.
May 21, 2014
Guest Speakers: Randy Christensen, staff lawyer at Ecojustice, Jeff Christian, partner at Lawson Lundell LLP, and Jaela Shockey, associate at JFK Law Corporation
Meeting Title/Topic: Water Sustainability Act
Synopsis: This was a joint Section meeting held with the Aboriginal Law - Vancouver and the Environmental Law Sections.
June 5, 2014
Guest Speakers: Jessica Clogg, Executive Director and Senior Counsel, West Coast Environmental Law, Nathan Hume, Adjunct Professor, UBC Law and Associate at Ratcliff & Co., and Emma Hume, Associate at Ratcliff & Co.
Meeting Title/Topic: LNG in BC's North - Update and Current Issues
Synopsis: The panel presented on three main subject areas:
1. Ms. Hume - Overview of LNG developments (facilities and pipelines) currently contemplated in BC.
2. Mr. Hume - Review of economic impacts from LNG development and issues faced by LNG industry.
3. Ms. Clogg - Discussion of strategic planning involved with LNG development and the need for a process that takes into account the cumulative effects of the industry as a whole.
Comments and Observations of the Secretary/Treasurer
The first full year of our expanded mandate beyond forestry into natural resource issues generally enabled us to bring a variety of topics to our Section meetings, resulting in increased attendance. We will continue to offer a variety of meeting topics in the upcoming year to appeal to a range of lawyers who practice in the natural resource law area.
Our polling of members from previous years indicated a desire for meeting topics to address basic/rudimentary subject areas. Our Tenures 101, Chief Forester Introduction and LNG Overview meetings were successful in this regard. Looking forward to the year ahead, we plan to continue with this direction.
Also, these rudimentary topics appeal to young lawyers and we hope to grow the Section through this initiative. An added benefit that these topics bring is that we can attract young lawyers to participate as panel members, giving young lawyers a chance to practice their presentation skills in front of a friendly audience. This also lessens our reliance on the availability of senior lawyers with limited availability.
Over the course of the year we received invitations to attend meetings from the Aboriginal Law - Vancouver and Environmental Law Sections. We also extended invitations to these Sections for a number of the meetings we hosted. Recognizing the cross over between these practice areas is an important aspect of meeting planning and we've seen benefits to our members from relationships with other Sections.
For 2014 and 2015 we expect to see a number of new Provincial laws and case law developments that will impact the natural resource law area. We intend to follow these developments and bring the attention of these matters to our members where possible.