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Bill C-226

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First Session, Forty-fourth Parliament,

70-71 Elizabeth II – 1-2 Charles III, 2021-2022-2023-2024
STATUTES OF CANADA 2024

CHAPTER 11
An Act respecting the development of a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and to advance environmental justice
ASSENTED TO
June 20, 2024

BILL C-226


SUMMARY

This enactment 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.

Available on the House of Commons website at the following address:
www.ourcommons.ca


70-71 Elizabeth II – 1-2 Charles III

CHAPTER 11

An Act respecting the development of a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and to advance environmental justice
[Assented to 20th June, 2024]

Preamble

Whereas 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;

Whereas a disproportionate number of people who live in environmentally hazardous areas are members of an Indigenous, racialized or other marginalized community;

Whereas 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;

Whereas the Government of Canada recognizes that it is important to meaningfully involve all Canadians — and, in particular, marginalized communities — in the development of environmental policy and that racial discrimination in the development of environmental policy would constitute environmental racism;

Whereas the Government of Canada 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;

And whereas the Government of Canada recognizes that collaboration and a coordinated national strategy are key to promoting effective change and achieving environmental justice;

Now, therefore, His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Short Title

Short title

1 This Act may be cited as the National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act.

Interpretation

Definition of Minister

2 In this Act, Minister means the Minister of the Environment.

National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice

National strategy

3 (1) The Minister must develop a national strategy to promote efforts across Canada to advance environmental justice and to assess, prevent and address environmental racism.

Consultation

(2) In developing the strategy, 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.

Content

(3) The strategy must include

  • (a) a study that includes

    • (i) an examination of the link between race, socio-economic status and environmental risk, and

    • (ii) information and statistics relating to the location of environmental hazards; and

  • (b) measures that can be taken to advance environmental justice and assess, prevent and address environmental racism and that may include

    • (i) possible amendments to federal laws, policies and programs,

    • (ii) the involvement of community groups in environmental policy-making,

    • (iii) compensation for individuals or communities, and

    • (iv) the collection of information and statistics relating to health outcomes in communities located in proximity to environmental hazards.

Reports to Parliament

Tabling of national strategy

4 (1) Within two years after the day on which this Act comes into force, the Minister must prepare a report setting out the national strategy and cause it to be tabled in each House of Parliament on any of the first 15 days on which that House is sitting after it is completed.

Publication

(2) The Minister must publish the report on the website of the Department of the Environment within 10 days after it has been tabled in both Houses of Parliament.

Report

5 Within five years after the report referred to in section 4 has been tabled in both Houses of Parliament, and every five years after that, the Minister must, in consultation with the parties referred to in subsection 3(2), prepare a report on the effectiveness of the national strategy that sets out the Minister’s conclusions and recommendations, and cause the report to be tabled in each House of Parliament on any of the first 15 days on which that House is sitting after it is completed.

Published under authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons

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