The Ontario government should re-visit a rule that leaves polluters off the hook for hazardous spills that cost less than $10,000 to clean up, the province’s auditor general suggests. In 2016, the Ontario environment ministry [now called the Ministry of…
Insurance coverage for a “sudden and accidental” release of diesel fuel can include a discharge that continued over several months, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has ruled in a commercial coverage dispute. As a result of Zurich Insurance Company…
The cost of cleaning up after spills of petroleum, oil, or other contaminants may not be covered under your client’s liability or property policy, a managing general agent warns. Many clients are exposed to pollution risk but are not necessarily…
Brokers wanting to advise commercial clients on pollution liability risk might learn a lesson or two from London Transit Commission v. Eaton Industries (Canada) Company, released this past Friday by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. London, Ontario’s city bus…
A British Columbia court ruling in favour of Intact Insurance Company and Economical Mutual Insurance Company is now final. A Vancouver-based dry cleaners that wanted to make a pollution-related claim with the two insurers, under commercial general liability policies, cannot…
A coverage dispute over pollution exclusions might bring two of Canada’s largest insurers before the Supreme Court of Canada. West Van Lions Gate Cleaners Ltd. has operated a dry cleaners in Vancouver since 1976. Until 1999 an automotive repair business…
OTTAWA – Two forest-product companies are on the hook for looking after a mercury-contaminated site near Ontario’s Grassy Narrows First Nation, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. The 4-3 decision Friday brought some clarity to a long-running dispute over…
An Ottawa dry cleaner is liable for nearly $2 million in environmental clean-up costs resulting from spills that occurred at least 45 years ago, as a result of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling released Thursday. The top court’s ruling…
A court ruling against Economical and Intact over pollution exclusions in commercial general liability policies has been reversed. As a result, the insurers do not have to defend a Vancouver area dry cleaner against a lawsuit filed by its neighbours…
SAINT JOHN, N.B. – Irving Pulp and Paper Ltd. has been hit with one of largest penalties ever imposed in Canada for an environmental violation. The company, based in Saint John, N.B., was fined $3.5 million Monday for dumping improperly…
A multi-million-dollar pollution clean-up order that spooked the Canadian insurance industry has some commercial brokers taking a good hard look at the exact wording of mid- to large-sized clients’ directors and officers (D&O) liability policies. The Ontario Ministry of the…
If your corporate client goes under and occupies polluted land, what happens if individual directors are left on the hook to clean up environmental contamination? This is the subject of “long, complex discussions” that Aon Canada brokers are having with…