Brownfield site development -- The Ontario context

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:354287

Phillips, D B ^[1]

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1. Proctor and Redfern Ltd., Toronto, Ontario (Canada)

The provincial government of Ontario recently promulgated new guidelines to deal with contamination on sites. One of the purposes of the guideline was to bolster development of contaminated sites by clarifying the regulatory process for redeveloping a contaminated site and to provide several clean-up options based on newer scientific information. These clean-up options include stratified clean-ups and site specific risk based criteria. The applications of the previous guideline were at times cumbersome for industries and land developers which may have impeded development of the Brownfield. This paper compares the changes between the old and the new regulatory clean-up guidelines and presents the differences in approach. This paper also presents the results from interviews with several industries and property developers and assesses their view on the regulatory change as well as their desire to develop Brownfields in Ontario. This information determines if the change in regulatory process has really encouraged development. Results from the interviews with proponents indicated that the new guidelines are a much better approach but still contain barriers such as liability issues. Furthermore, the regulatory approval process has been transferred from the provincial government to the local governments. As a result the local governments are applying the guidelines differently across the province.

• OSTI ID: 354287
• Report Number(s): CONF-970677--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
ABANDONED SITES
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
LIABILITIES
ONTARIO
RECOMMENDATIONS
REMEDIAL ACTION