A man walks in frigid weather at Rundle Park as emissions rise from the Imperial Oil Strathcona Refinery, in Edmonton, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2019. The federal government is pushing legislation for the enshrinement of the right to a healthy environmental. However, it is giving itself two additional years to define that meaning. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Feds enshrining right to healthy environment but no clarity on what that means
Government will have up to two years after bill takes effect to define that rights implementation
The federal government is pushing legislation to enshrine the right to a healthy environment into law but is giving itself up to two more years to define what that means.
The amendment to Canada’s Environmental Protection Act is one of the 87 recommendations that the government received five years ago from the House of Commons environmental committee.
Although the government took until April 2021 for the change to be introduced, the bill died in August without being debated when the election was called. In February, a new bill was introduced in the Senate.
The legislation provides that the government has up to two years to decide how the right will be implemented in order to enforce the act.
Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson said that it doesn’t make sense to enshrine rights into law without giving context.
But Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says any lawmaker knows you can’t define a legal element in regulation until that element exists.
—The Canadian Press
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