Can Environmental Laws Fulfill Their Promise? Stories from Canada

Abstract

Abstract:Canadian environmental law has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, responding to some of the flaws and weaknesses identified by commentators seeking to explain the continuing trend in environmental degradation. The aim of this article is to tell the story of three pieces of Canadian environmental legislation, the Alberta Land Stewardship Act, the federal Species at Risk Act, and Alberta's Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, with a view to exploring whether the environmental ambition underlying these pieces of legislation is being realized. Our overall conclusion is that there is a significant gap between the ambition of these three pieces of environmental legislation and their actual implementation but this gap arises from design choices made by the legislature and the executive, rather than something inherent in the law itself.

Forging a Clearer Path Forward for Assessing Cumulative Impacts on Aboriginal and Treaty Rights

“…141 There has been no commitment to develop such a TLU Management Framework, and until such time as it is incorporated, LARP will likely not have a "super legislation" effect on provincial decision-makers. 142 ALSA also affords wide-ranging and significant discretion to Cabinet in determining the scope and content of regional plans, including whether to incorporate elements essential to a cumulative effects management approach (such as thresholds, indicators, and details related to monitoring and policies). 143 This latitude undermines its potential to address cumulative environmental impacts.…”

The registration, recording or noting of native title

“…A historical registration searching capacity would deliver registration details at any stage of registration and would ensure that information initially registered and subsequent changes that occur can always be traced. 20 The other registration systems that will be considered, besides the Torrens Title system, include unique systems that employ a titling approach developed in Queensland ('the Queensland Registers'). 21 They will also include registration systems in jurisdictions outside Australia established by Aboriginal title holders to register Aboriginal title, with the systems of Canada being particularly relevant.…”

“…This thesis will also consider how the courts have treated 19 Northern Territory v Griffiths [2017] FCAFC 106. 20 Jose Bellido and Hyo Yoon Kang, 'In Search of a Trade Mark-Search Practices and Bureaucratic Poetics' (2016) 25(2) Griffith Law Review 147,164. 21 Land Act 1994 (Qld) s 275.…”

“…19 Each commodity has a use value determined by its utility and is also the material repository of exchange value determined by the desire in the community to possess the particular commodity. 20 In the Marxist view, a commodity can be exchanged equally with other commodities and if use value is omitted, the common aspect of all commodities is that they represent abstract human labour. 21 The difficulty with the Marxist view of commodities is that it does not adequately accommodate unoccupied, undeveloped Crown land where no human labour is involved if, for example, the land has not been fenced, cleared or cultivated.…”

“…19 Robert Freedman, ed, Marx on Economics (Penguin Books, 1961) 28. 20 Ibid. 21 Freedman, above n 19, 27.…”