At press time on June 14, 2024, the National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act (Bill C-226) was poised to receive royal assent and become law.
The six-page private member’s bill, sponsored in the House of Commons by Green party leader and environmental lawyer Elizabeth May, was passed by cross-party support in the Commons on March 29, 2023, and approved by the Senate on June 13, 2024.
Elizabeth May, Green party leader & environmental lawyer
Green party MP Mike Morrice added that “environmental racism is a pervasive issue that has affected too many communities for too long. With the passage of Bill C-226, we are taking concrete steps to address these injustices and work towards a Canada where everyone has access to a safe and healthy environment.”
The summary in Bill C-226 says it “requires the Minister of the Environment, in consultation or cooperation with any interested persons, bodies, organizations or communities, to develop a national strategy to promote efforts across Canada to address the harm caused by environmental racism. It also provides for reporting requirements in relation to the strategy.”
Notably, Bill C-226 specifies that the national strategy “must include” measures “to advance environmental justice and assess, prevent and address environmental racism,” which may include “compensation for individuals or communities” and “possible amendments to federal laws, policies and programs.”
Bill C-226 obliges the federal environment minister to “develop a national strategy to promote efforts across Canada to advance environmental justice and to assess, prevent and address environmental racism.”
The bill does not define “environmental racism,” per se.
(The Canadian Human Rights Commission describes environmental racism as “the disproportionate proximity and greater exposure of Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities to polluting industries and environmentally hazardous activities.”)
However, the preamble to Bill C-226 states, among other things, that “a disproportionate number of people who live in environmentally hazardous areas are members of an Indigenous, racialized or other marginalized community”; “the establishing of environmentally hazardous sites, including landfills and polluting industries, in areas inhabited primarily by members of those communities could be considered a form of racial discrimination”; “the Government of Canada recognizes the need to advance environmental justice across Canada and the importance of continuing to work towards eliminating racism and racial discrimination in all their forms and manifestations”; and that the federal government “is committed to assessing and preventing environmental racism and to providing affected communities with the opportunity to participate in, among other things, finding solutions to address harm caused by environmental racism.”
Bill C-226 states that in developing a national strategy to advance environmental justice and address environmental racism, the minister “must consult or cooperate with any interested persons, bodies, organizations or communities — including other ministers, representatives of governments in Canada and Indigenous communities — and ensure that it is consistent with the Government of Canada’s framework for the recognition and implementation of the rights of Indigenous peoples.”
The bill stipulates that the strategy’s content, “must include”:
- a study that includes an examination of the link between race, socioeconomic status and environmental risk as well as information and statistics relating to the location of environmental hazards; and
- measures that can be taken to advance environmental justice and assess, prevent and address environmental racism, which may include possible amendments to federal laws, policies and programs; the involvement of community groups in environmental policymaking; compensation for individuals or communities; and the collection of information and statistics relating to health outcomes in communities located in proximity to environmental hazards.
Bill C-226 says that the environment minister must table the government’s national strategy on environmental racism and environmental justice in Parliament within two years after the bill comes into force. Every five years after that, the minister “must, in consultation with” any interested persons, bodies, organizations or communities — including other ministers, representatives of governments in Canada and Indigenous communities — “prepare a report on the effectiveness of the national strategy that sets out the minister’s conclusions and recommendations” and table it in Parliament.
The bill’s sponsor in the Senate, non-affiliated Senator Dr. Mary Jane McCallum, a First Nations social justice advocate, noted that the bill “has had a long journey” into law, with earlier iterations going back to February 2020.
“Having finally passed through both Houses of Parliament, today is truly a momentous occasion for so many First Nations, Inuit, Black and other racialized communities across Canada,” she said in a June 13 statement. “These are the communities, and the people, who have historically been targeted to live in so-called sacrifice zones, or areas surrounding resource extraction and energy-generating sites that contend with harsh and brutal outcomes,”
McCallum said, “The insidious and often hidden impacts of environmental racism enable such discrimination to thrive with little awareness or knowledge of the Canadian public. For countless First Nations communities, this results in compounding deleterious impacts from resource extractive operations which include the wanton destruction of traditional lands; the pollution of previously pristine lands, waters, and air; a negative effect on our cultures, traditions, and governance structures; and an adverse impact on the livelihood and well-being of impacted peoples, communities, and all our relations.”
The Green party, which has two MPs in the House of Commons, noted Bill C-226 is the third piece of Green legislation to be enacted. The other two laws are the Lyme Disease Act and a bill banning the keeping of whales and dolphins in captivity.
“Very few private members’ bills ever become law,” the party noted in its media release. “Greens have established new laws in pursuit of social justice, supporting marginalized communities, helping Canadians struggling with a devastating disease whose prevalence has increased due to climate change, and for marine mammals and animal rights.”
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