2012 Steering Committee

Paul Granda is a partner of Gowlings and Leader of the firm's Environmental Law National Practice Group. He is recognized by the Lexpert Canadian Legal Directory and The Best Lawyers in Canada as a leading practitioner of environmental law.

Mr. Granda has vast experience in numerous fields related to environmental law which, over the years, has led him to advise clients on environmental matters as they pertain to compliance with applicable laws and potential liabilities associated with present and historical land contamination, namely in the petroleum and mining sectors, and brownfield redevelopment, to the review of environmental management systems and to representation of clients before administrative tribunals and courts of law. His practice in the field of environmental law has also involved working closely with clients and government authorities for the purpose of obtaining or transferring permits and approvals.

His client base includes companies in the real estate field and in the field of waste management, contaminated soils treatment and disposal, dry material landfill disposal as well as companies in the petroleum, mining, chemical, forestry, manufacturing and other industrial sectors. He is also part of a major Canadian petroleum company's emergency response team.

Mr. Granda regularly takes part in leading and coordinating environmental due diligences in commercial transactions, financings or compliance audits. He has written numerous environmental law articles and is regularly invited as a speaker at national and international conferences on a variety of environmental topics, including current trends in environmental laws and regulations, liability for contaminated sites, environmental compliance and closure obligations of mining activities, directors' and officers' liability, and waste and hazardous materials management.

Mr. Granda is a member of the editorial board of Environment Law published by Federated Press, a contributor to Canadian Environmental Law published by Butterworths and has contributed to the work Canadian Brownfields Manual published by LexisNexis Butterworths.

He is a founding member and former director and secretary of the Environmental Auditing Association of Québec (Association québécoise de vérification environnementale) and is Secretary of Société de gestion des huiles usagées (SOGHU), the Québec used oil recovery and reclamation association. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of CLIPP (Centre de liaison sur l'intervention et la prévention psychosociales), a non-profit organization dedicated to the improvement of psychosocial prevention and intervention practices in relation to family violence and knowledge transfer in this field.

Mr. Granda is a member of the Canadian Bar Association's Environmental Law and Natural Resources and Energy Section, and a member of the International Bar Association's Business Law and Environmental Law Sections.

He was called to the Québec Bar in 1976 after having received his Bachelor of Civil Law degree from McGill University.

Murray Rankin joined Heenan Blaikie in 2006. Previously, he was a partner in a litigation law firm where his practice focused on public law issues, with particular reference to aboriginal law, environmental law, and information and privacy law. He has also provided dispute resolution services and mediated several disputes in the public and private law contexts. A skilled negotiator, Mr. Rankin also served as a Treaty Negotiator for the Province of British Columbia and negotiated the first Agreement in Principle under the British Columbia Treaty Commission process; within the past year, he negotiated the first Economic Benefits Agreement on behalf of a First Nation in Northeast British Columbia.

For over a decade, Mr. Rankin was a Professor of Law at the University of Victoria where he taught Administrative Law and Environmental Law. He has been recognized as a leading practitioner in environmental law in the Lexpert and is a past Chair of the West Coast Environmental Law Association. His environmental law practice for private and public sector clients has taken him to all levels of court in Canada and to negotiations in both Canada and the United States. He also served as the principal policy advisor in establishing the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission. In 2003, he co-founded the Canadian Centre for Environmental Arbitration and Mediation, of which he remains a member. He is currently the Chair of TLC -The Land Conservancy of British Columbia.

Mr. Rankin's wide ranging practice in administrative law has included advice and advocacy for a number of entities in both the private and public sectors. In the 1980s, he translated a leading French language text in this field, René Dussault, Louis Borgeat, Administrative Law: A Treatise. He continues to serve as a Regional Editor of the Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice.

Mr. Rankin has also had a long interest in freedom of information and privacy issues. He worked at the OECD in Paris in its Directorate of Science Technology and Industry on Transborder Information Flows and has written extensively about this field in several publications. He also served as consultant to the House of Commons committee that conducted the review of the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act in 1987 and in 1992, was appointed as special advisor responsible for the policy formation and drafting of British Columbia's first Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. More recently, he was co-author of PIPEDA: An Annotated Guide, published by Irwin Law in 2001 and has lectured and written extensively on privacy topics pertaining to the new federal and provincial privacy legislation.

Brad has extensive experience in civil litigation, aboriginal law, administrative and constitutional law, and environmental law. He represents clients involved with land use issues, project development, regulatory approvals, environmental assessments, First Nations consultation, and litigation, in a range of natural resource industries including mining, forestry, agriculture, aquaculture, energy, independent power projects, oil and gas, and transportation. His practice extends through Western Canada and the North (including Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut).

Brad acts as counsel in court hearings and in public review hearings, in all levels of the British Columbia Courts and the Federal Courts, and before federal, provincial and territorial boards, panels and commissions.

Brad also has extensive experience in corporate and commercial litigation, injunctions, and environmental prosecutions, as well as competition law.

Brad was the firm’s Managing Partner from 2000 through 2003.

Wally has 20 years of expertise in environmental law and aboriginal law. He has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in Canada, LEXPERT and Euromoney Guide to the World's Leading Environmental Lawyers as one of Canada's leading environmental lawyers.

Most of his practice is devoted to regulatory approvals and litigation in environmental and aboriginal law matters. He is frequently retained to negotiate solutions to complex liability, regulatory, and aboriginal law issues.  

Jack specializes in all aspects of environmental litigation: civil actions, prosecutions, class actions, administrative hearings, and judicial review applications, including advice work on how to avoid such litigation and successfully deal with regulators. Jack’s environmental litigation expertise was refined over twenty years as an Ontario Crown counsel: ten years with the Ministry of the Attorney General representing all ministries of the Crown; ten years with the Ministry of the Environment conducting prosecutions and hearings. He has litigated in every level of court in Canada, including the Supreme Court. He has written and taught extensively in the fields of environmental law and regulatory liability and is certified by the Law Society as a Specialist in Environmental Law.

Notable Matters

• West River Management Inc. v. WCI Canada Inc. et al. Successfully prosecuted a civil action seeking damages for a contaminated industrial site.
• R. v. Canadian Mist Distillers Limited. Successfully defended a prosecution in relation to a municipal sewer use by-law.
• Collingwood East Environmental Action Committee v. Director et al. Successfully defended an application for leave to appeal to the Environmental Review Tribunal.
• York Energy Centre. Litigation advice and support to a 393 megawatt natural gas-fired simple cycle electricity generating project, in relation to 12 environmental assessment review “bump-up” requests.
• Canadian Electricity Association. Preparation of a submission paper to the federal government on the 5 year review of the federal Species at Risk Act.
• Pearson v. Inco Ltd. and Ontario. Successfully defended the Crown in this major environmental class action involving nickel oxide pollution to an entire city.
• Hollinger Farms Inc. v. Minister of Environment and Ontario Realty Corporation. Successfully defended this judicial review application, which challenged Ontario’s class environmental assessment process for the largest land transaction in Ontario’s history – the Seaton/Oak Ridges Moraine Land Exchange.
• Larry Jackson Fisheries v. Minister of Natural Resources. Successfully defended this judicial review application by the Ontario Commercial Fishery Association challenging the Minister’s adoption of lake-wide fishery quotas on Lake Erie.
• Imperial Oil v. Quebec Minister of Environment. Successfully represented the Attorney General of Ontario as intervener in a major appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada concerning bias and the polluter-pay principle in relation to a remediation order issued by the Québec Minister of Environment.

Affiliations

• Law Society of Upper Canada
• Advocates Society, Canadian Bar Association, American Bar Association
• Ontario Bar Association, Environmental Law Section Executive
• Toronto Lawyers Association Law Journal, Environmental Editor

Me Robert Daigneault est avocat, biologiste et administrateur agréé et depuis 2001, il dirige son propre cabinet de droit de l’environnement, des ressources et du territoire. En mai 2010, DAIGNEAULT, AVOCATS INC. a été classé parmi les « Top 5 » des cabinets boutiques en droit de l’environnement par le Canadian Lawyer Magazine.  Me Daigneault a été associé du cabinet Lapointe Rosenstein où il a exercé de 1990 à 2001. Il a été auparavant procureur au ministère de l’Environnement du Québec. Il oeuvre dans le domaine de l'environnement depuis près de 40 ans, d'abord comme scientifique, puis comme gestionnaire et aujourd'hui comme avocat. De plus, il est formateur agréé par la Commission des partenaires du marché du travail. Il a publie chez CCH un ouvrage exhaustif en droit de l'environnement intitulé L'environnement au Québec, en collaboration avec Me Martin Paquet, du ministère de la Justice du Québec.

Advocacy practice divided between civil litigation, with an emphasis on corporate commercial, media, environmental and construction disputes; and administrative law, focusing on environmental matters, land use permitting and approvals, and regulated industries, particularly energy and oil and gas.  Represented proponents in environmental assessment hearings, notably for the Sable Offshore Energy and Deep Panuke Projects.  Defence of prosecution for infringements of federal and provincial environmental legislation.  Advises and represents in connection with applications for approvals of natural gas projects, particularly in the Nova Scotia offshore.  Member of the NSBS and CBA.  Admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1982; appointed QC in 1998.  Fellow American College of Trial Lawyers (2009).  Member of the Nova Scotia Environment Minister’s Round Table for the Environment and Sustainable Prosperity (2007  -  ).

Education
AB magna cum laude (Harvard, 1977); BA (Jurisprudence Oxon, 1979); LLB (Dalhousie, 1980).

Sarah Powell is a partner in the environmental group at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg.  She has gained experience in a broad range of environmental and municipal matters, including environmental impact assessment, environmental and municipal approvals and contaminated site remediation.  Sarah's principal focus is on providing advice on the impact of environmental law on real estate and business and lending transactions.  Sarah also spends a significant amount of time on litigation matters that involve contaminated sites.  Is certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a Specialist in Environmental Law and is Immediate Past Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association.

John Stefaniuk engages in a broad practice with emphasis on environmental law, real estate and development law, natural resources and energy, commercial law and municipal law matters. He has particular experience in relation to contaminated sites, mining and mine rehabilitation, wind power development, natural resource development, environmental approvals and licensing, commercial real estate, leasing, financing and development, municipal approvals, taxation and assessment and business acquisitions. He appears regularly before government licensing bodies and administrative tribunals including the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission and Municipal Board, municipal councils, provincial legislative committees and in all levels of court in Manitoba and in the Federal Court in connection with environmental, resource, regulatory municipal, and property issues.

John has been listed in the Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the 500 Leading Lawyers in Canada. He is also listed in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory under Environmental Law and Property Development and is listed in the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, under Environment, Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Environmental Lawyers and the National Post-Best Lawyers in Canada directory, among other listings. He is a roster member of the Canadian Centre for Environmental Arbitration and Mediation. 

Education
University of Manitoba, B. Comm. (Hons.) 1984, LL.B. 1987

Call to the Bar
Manitoba, 1988

Representative Cases/Transactions
Counsel to a historic mine operator in the settlement of a potential $42 Million environmental rehabilitation liability.

Counsel to The Toronto-Dominion Bank and local counsel to the Bentall Group in the recent $69 million sale of their respective interests in the Winnipeg TD Centre development. John was also local counsel to the Bank on the purchase financing.

Co-counsel with James Edmond to IPSCO Recycling Inc., General Scrap & Car Shredder and others in the successful defence of a novel injunction application advanced by HMQ Canada under s.311 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, resulting in a ½ million dollar award in costs against Environment Canada.
Counsel to The City of Brandon and Maple Leaf Foods Inc. before the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission at the 2003 hearing held in relation to the expansion of Brandon’s municipal sewage treatment plant to accommodate Maple Leaf’s second shift.

Achievements
John is a Life Council Member of the Manitoba Bar Association