Yukon’s Bill 73 Modernizes Environment Act

Yukon’s Minister of Environment, has tabled a new Act to Amend the Environment Act. The bill updates the Environment Act to:

allow the minister to establish the Yukon Council on the Economy and the Environment from time to time;
provide the minister with the power to require that a waste management plan be submitted by a government authority for review by the minister;
provide for producer led recovery and collection of certain designated materials;
provide for a regulatory framework that enables the development and remediation of a contaminated site, including providing the opportunity for a responsible party to transfer its responsibilities under the act for a contaminated site to a third party;
allow the minister to make an order prohibiting the importation or handling of specified hazardous substances;
provide enforcement officers with a power to apply for a warrant to enter private lands, except for private dwellings, for the purpose of conducting an inspection; and
establish regulation-making powers in order to support the preceeding changes.