Law360 Canada (November 22, 2022, 6:27 AM EST) -- Application for leave to appeal by the City of Winnipeg from a decision of The Clean Environment Commission (CEC), upholding The Province of Manitoba’s (Director’s) designation of the City as a potentially responsible person (PRP) for remediation of an impacted site. The City argued that the CEC breached its duty of fairness and applied the wrong legal test in concluding Winnipeg was a potential PRP. Imperial Oil Limited (IOL) owned a parcel of land in northwest Winnipeg (site). The north portion of the site was contaminated with hydrocarbons. The south portion of the site was contaminated with heavy metals. IOL acknowledged responsibility for the hydrocarbon contamination and implemented a remediation plan approved by the Director. The Director determined IOL was not responsible for the remediation of the heavy metal contamination in the south portion of the site because the level of heavy metals contamination was not consistent with petroleum storage operations, but was consistent with landfill operations that included refuse, cinder and ash. The Director designated the City as a PRP for remediation of the heavy metals contamination in the south portion of the site because she viewed the contamination as consistent with the site being used as a landfill and the Village of Brooklands (Brooklands) (incorporated into the City in 1972) owned the site and operated a landfill at it. The City appealed the PRP designation to the CEC claiming neither it nor Brooklands owned or occupied the site and did not, by any activities carried out by either on the site or elsewhere, contaminate the site. The CEC released its decision upholding the Director's designation of the City as a PRP for remediation of the site....