The Green Party of Canada is dismayed that the government has missed the deadline to deliver Canada’s National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice, warning that the failure comes at the exact moment marginalized communities face heightened risk from the government’s rush to fast-track industrial and fossil fuel projects.
The strategy is required under Bill C-226, National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act, a landmark bill sponsored by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. It received Royal Assent on June 20, 2024. The Act requires the Minister of Environment to develop a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and advance environmental justice. It also required the Minister to table a report on the strategy in Parliament within two years of the Act coming into force, by June 20, 2026.
That legal deadline has now come and gone. Instead of delivering the completed strategy on time, Environment and Climate Change Canada opened consultations on a draft strategy on June 26, 2026, with feedback open until August 10, 2026.
“It is incredibly disappointing to tell communities long waiting for justice that this legal deadline has come and gone,” said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands. “Parliament passed this law because Indigenous, racialized and marginalized communities are still being forced to carry the health, environmental and economic burden of pollution. The government had two years to deliver and it failed.”
The Green Party says the missed deadline is part of a larger and dangerous pattern. At the same time the federal government is legally required to prevent and address environmental racism, the Carney government is weakening environmental protections, fast-tracking fossil fuel infrastructure, sidelining affected communities, and increasing the risk that the harms of new industrial activity will once again fall hardest on Indigenous, racialized and marginalized communities.
This is the same government that signed a Canada-Alberta pipeline agreement to push a new West Coast pipeline, suspended the planned federal oil and gas emissions cap, opened the door to weakening the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, approved the Enbridge Sunrise expansion, advanced sweeping “major projects” changes that would weaken environmental review and Indigenous consultation, and pushed through pesticide rollbacks in Bill C-30.
The pattern is clear: when big industry demands speed, the Carney government moves. When communities harmed by environmental racism are owed justice, they are told to wait.
“This government moves quickly when oil and gas companies want action,” said May. “But when Indigenous, racialized and marginalized communities are legally owed a national environmental justice strategy, the deadline passes and the government is still consulting on a draft. That shows exactly whose priorities this government is serving.”
The Act recognizes that a disproportionate number of people living in environmentally hazardous areas are members of Indigenous, racialized or other marginalized communities. The practice of placing hazardous sites, including landfills and polluting industries, primarily in communities inhabited by marginalized people is a form of racial discrimination.
“The facts are clear. Some Canadians bear a disproportionate and unfair share of the harms caused by air pollution, contaminated water, toxic substances and the climate crisis,” said Dr. David Boyd, Professor, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC. “That’s why Canada urgently needs a National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice that identifies practical actions that government and industry will take, with clear timelines and identification of who’s responsible for taking those actions. The vague draft strategy fails to identify any practical actions. Unless strengthened substantially, it will fail to ensure that all Canadians can enjoy their right to a healthy environment.”
The Green Party welcomes the opening of consultations and urges affected communities, Indigenous Peoples, environmental justice advocates, health organizations and members of the public to provide feedback on the draft strategy before August 10. However, Greens are warning that consultation cannot be used to cover for a missed legal obligation or delay meaningful action.
“A late consultation is not a substitute for a concrete strategy Canada committed to by passing this legislation,” said May. “Canada needs a national strategy with clear timelines, real accountability, and sustained funding.”
Environmental racism affects where people live, the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the health risks they are forced to carry. Communities across Canada have fought for decades to have these harms recognized and addressed. The federal government’s failure to meet its own legal deadline sends the wrong message at the worst possible time, as Ottawa moves to bulldoze through projects that will only increase the burden on the communities this Act is designed to bring justice to.
The Green Party of Canada demands that the federal government abide by the law and table the national strategy, ensuring it includes measurable targets, timelines, enforcement tools, public reporting, and sustained funding to support communities affected by environmental racism.
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