Professional reliance and environmental regulation in British Columbia /

This report explored the efficacy of public participation in environmental decision making and considered the various barriers and challenges associated with enhancing both the quality of these decisions and the accessibility and transparency of the processes by which they are made. [...] A 24-person Cross-Ministry Working Group was established to “support and coordinate the advancement of use of qualified professionals and persons.”9 The working group developed an “opportunity assessment tool” to identify where and how the professional reliance regime could be expanded, and at the time of writing is just beginning to develop case studies to examine some of the current PR regimes.1 [...] The issue of the competence of individual members of a profession is a completely separate issue that existed before and after the deregulation of the last decade in British Columbia. [...] It is important to remain cognizant of the distinction between the performance of professionals and the regulatory structure under which they operate, because confusing these two aspects of professional reliance can lead to miscommunication and failure to identify the real nub of some environmental disputes. [...] Notwithstanding that this is a very rare event, the seriousness of the consequences to the client, to the business climate, and to the reputation of lawyers more broadly is such that it is widely accepted that it is in the public interest to strictly regulate the handling of trust funds – not just for the lawyers who might be vulnerable to temptation in a time of moral weakness or personal crisis