A bill to update Canada’s cornerstone environmental protection law was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday.
Bill S-5, dubbed the Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act, was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marc Gold, the government’s representative in the upper chamber.
It’s the Same bill as the one introduced in April 2021, but it died on the order papers once the election was called. The bill didn’t make it past first reading in the last Parliament.
“Our government is reintroducing this bill with the same wording as before, because Canadians know the urgency. We need to give this bill the best chance to get passed,” Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault said.
“We are responding to that urgency by introducing the bill to the Senate first, because it is the best way to get it through a very busy legislative agenda,” he added.
Liberals played a crucial role in updating the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. campaign promise. It hasn’t been revamped in over two decades.
“With this legislation we would first recognize in Canadian law the right of every Canadian to a healthy environment. This bill will also introduce new measures that require businesses to shift towards (using) chemicals that are safer for Canadians and for our environment,” Guilbeault said on Wednesday.
The bill recognizes a “right to a healthy environment” for the first time, but it’ll take two years for the government to figure out how that will actually work. In the meantime, consultations will be held with stakeholders.
It also requires the Environment and Health ministers to do risk assessments on how “vulnerable populations” are affected by certain substances in the environment when administering the law.
“The bill would define vulnerable populations as those who, due to greater susceptibility or greater exposure, may be at increased risk of experiencing adverse health effects from exposure to” certain chemicals, Guilbeault said. “Too many racialized and Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by pollution. This bill provides (the federal government) a basis to better address these injustices.”
The bill also gives the government more powers to ban substances found to be toxic under the law; requires the government to maintain a “watch list” of substances that could become toxic depending on exposure; allows Canadians to request that a substance’s potential toxicity be reviewed by the government, and more.
NDP environment critic Laurel Collins isn’t sold on the bill.
“As with the previous iteration of this legislation, we remain concerned about the Liberals’ commitment to protecting the environment,” she said in a statement to iPolitics.
“The bill has limitations on the right for Canadians to have a healthy environment, and there are significant loopholes and weaknesses that are of serious concern. In addition, we are concerned that this bill will allow government to make politically motivated decisions that override the scientific evidence when it comes to dangerous substances.”
Some of Canada’s biggest environmental organizations We were concerned about the bill before., too.
When the bill was introduced last year, a number of organizations wrote a letter urging the government to remove “qualifying language” that “could be used to undermine” the right to a healthy environment, and more.
