March 12th, 2024

In December 2023, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy released a Discussion Paper on a Site Remediation Service Enhancement Review. This is part of ongoing efforts to support a sustainable remediation sector, while ensuring the services remain timely and efficient.

When the Contaminated Sites Regulation (CSR) came into effect in 1997 it mandated fees for service. While fees have been amended a few times, the last fee review was in 2007. Since that time, the Ministry has seen an increase in demand for site remediation services, and an increase in resourcing needs to appropriately manage service applications.

This review examined the potential for other changes in the land remediation framework to improve the process. The specific objectives of the service review were to:

• Propose regulatory updates to the CSR fee structure to simplify and clarify costs for services;
• Ensure fees are proportionate to the services provided;
• Ensure First Nations interests are reflected in the updated CSR;
• Align site information requests through the Site Registry with the new Digital Site Remediation Services Project.

UDI submitted a letter to the Ministry, expressing support for how additional staffing is being utilized to review applications, alongside steps to enable members to search/retrieve reports and access forms online. While UDI noted it was not in opposition to fees increasing if linked to faster processing times, a set of recommendations were included for consideration in response to any fee increases.

The full Discussion Paper can be reviewed here.