Reforms to Canada’s leading environmental law are finally here, but it’s unclear how the updated bill will protect front-line communities in what are often called “sacrifice zones.”
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) is in the heart of the tarsands and has dealt with a massive tailings pond leak and catastrophic wildfires in the span of months. In Ontario, Aamjiwnaang First Nation is in the centre of the Chemical Valley, a region surrounded by 60 chemical plants and oil refineries. Both communities have been effectively sacrificed for the gains and development of industry. Cancer rates remain higher than the Canadian average in both First Nations.
On June 13, senators voted unanimously to adopt Bill S-5. The bill includes reforms to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), which regulates chemicals, plastics and water quality. The initial bill was responsible for bans on chemicals like asbestos and BPA.
The reforms require the federal government to take into account intergenerational equity when administering the new law, include protections for vulnerable populations and incorporate Indigenous knowledge on par with western science. The bill also recognizes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and its principle of free, prior and informed consent for resource extraction projects that take place on Indigenous territory. How Ottawa carries out UNDIRP within the new environmental law will depend on what is in the federal government’s UNDRIP action plan due by the end of the month.
Sylvia Plain, a member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation, was a consultant for the bill. She’s celebrating the win following years of advocacy.
Plain was forced to go to the United Nations to frame the lack of accountability and higher rates of cancer in her community as a human rights issue, she told Canada’s National Observer.
“Yeah, these laws are created, good things are said, [but] who is there to hold the government accountable?” she asks.
An action plan for the reforms isn’t due for two years. Officials remain vague on how communities will be protected and how the chemical and fossil fuel industries will be policed by the feds.
Plain is outspoken about grassroots involvement in the action plan because “our original knowledge-keepers are our scientists,” she said. The community must be involved in data collection to hold industry to account, she added.
Currently, CEPA has a stringent enforcement regime, and there are other laws and jurisdictions that will have to come together to ensure environmental protections for vulnerable communities, a senior government official told Canada’s National Observer on background.
“I think just having that sort of focus on vulnerable populations and environmental justice will start and maintain the right conversations to make things happen,” the senior government official added.
Other jurisdictions, like Alberta and Ontario, have failed to enforce environmental protections in the past. Alberta regulators didn’t inform ACFN community members for months following a recent tailings pond leak, threatening residents and the food sources they depend on. In Chemical Valley, industry has lagged when reporting toxic spills, with little government oversight or investigation from Queen’s Park.
In Aamjiwnaang, Plain is looking forward. The economy of Sarnia, the city adjacent to the First Nation, is propped up by high-paying jobs in chemical plants and oil refineries.
But Plain isn’t trying to frame the problems of Chemical Valley as Indigenous versus non-Indigenous. She wants the same quality jobs for members of her community and advocates for the transition to a cleaner, greener industry.
That said, the work on new environmental reforms is just beginning.
“I think it moved the needle — I don't want to give them a huge pat on the back,” Plain said about legislators in Ottawa.
— with files from Natasha Bulowski
Matteo Cimellaro / Canada’s National Observer / Local Journalism Initiative
Comments
Unfortunately, the way both federal and provincial governments have been using the words "protect" and "protection" are Humpty Dumpty Dictionary offerings: where words mean what they want them to mean, not what any decent dictionary says they mean.
That's why "protecting" the BC coast (which IIRC, Mr. Trudeau said he "loved") consisted of providing some dollars to First Nations peoples for "cleanup" ...
"Cleanup" is what needs to happen when something hasn't been protected.
Between the "alternative" word meanings, and outright lies, it would be far, far to early to get hopes up for anything close to "the real thing."