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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For media inquiries or to arrange an interview:media@greenparty.ca

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Speaker: Ms. May
Time: 17/06/2022 14:05:17
Context: Debate

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP): Madam Speaker, I want to start of course by acknowledging we are here on the territory of the Algonquin nation, and to it we say meegwetch.
I also want to acknowledge the hon. member for Red Deer—Mountain View had intended to speak to this bill. It is unfortunate technical glitches interfered with it, and I am sure he was about to support it wholeheartedly. In any case, we do not get the benefit of his speech and I regret that.

En commençant, je tiens à remercier quelques députés qui ont participé à ce débat dans la première heure et, aujourd’hui, dans la deuxième heure.

Je dis un grand merci au ministre de l’Environnement et du Changement climatique, à ma collègue et amie députée de Repentigny, à un autre ami très proche le député de Victoria, à mon ami le député de Lac-Saint-Louis, aux députés de Dufferin—Caledon, York-Centre et, pour aujourd’hui, mon cher ami député de Kitchener-Centre qui est aussi un député vert. Je dis merci aux conservateurs parce que ce sont eux qui ont donné l’opportunité aujourd’hui de faire un discours. Je remercie aussi les députées de Saint-Jean, de Nunavut et aussi la secrétaire parlementaire députée de Toronto—Danforth, ainsi que la députée de Vancouver-Est.

These were rich speeches; they gave us a lot.

Particularly, I want to thank my friend, the member of Parliament for Nunavut, for reflections on the bravery of Inuit hunters who were forced, due to the lack of environmental rights, and we can hardly imagine what it was like in February in Nunavut, it is not warm, to go out and take their places in civil disobedience on a runway to blockade a mine site because their rights were being violated. With only five minutes, I certainly cannot get into the full details on that effort, but I stand in solidarity with my friend, the member of Parliament for Nunavut, and the communities that have succeeded in persuading the Nunavut Impact Review Board to say no to a doubling of the iron ore mine on Baffin Island. I hope the Minister of Northern Affairs will act as he should and accept that advice.

There is so much to say about the bill and why we are here and where we are.

C’est un projet de loi pour prévenir le racisme environnemental, mais c’est aussi tellement important de souligner que ce projet de loi sert à faire progresser la justice environnementale.
As a feminist commentating, I just went back to make sure I had that right in French. I had not realized before that “le racisme” is masculin but that “justice” is féminin.

I should not digress from my digressions when I have a five-minute speech.
However, this is a critically important issue that we make progress—

Ms. Elizabeth May: Madam Speaker, Do I need to start over?
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes): No.

Ms. Elizabeth May: The importance of the bill and what I wanted to underscore is that it is operative.

Earlier today, of all coincidences, I was speaking at a conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the University of Ottawa Law School with many brilliant people. I was not one of the brilliant people, but I was invited anyway. However, we were reflecting on 40 years of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and what was missing: What do we need going forward? There were perspectives on the need for socio-economic rights, that we address the enormous income inequality that is growing in Canada and globally, that we address the needs that we express in terms of human rights but also the rights that were missing from the charter, and so we spoke of the importance of addressing this gap through environmental rights.

I will note parenthetically that, Bill C-226, while being complementary to this right that we should have but do not yet have, we will not have this right if Bill S-5 passes and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act amendments do not create environmental rights as they should, but perhaps we can fix that through amendments.

What are rights without tools to enforce them? The environmental justice program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has, since 1994, created tools that can be used by communities, indigenous communities, people of colour communities, Black communities and low-income communities, who have been historically, and are to this day, deprived of a healthy environment, because they do not have the clout of white, wealthy neighbours. The tools are to hire a toxicologist, to hire an epidemiologist, and are so abbreviated and so well-known in the U.S.: the EJ program of the U.S. EPA, Environmental Justice. That is what we are here for.

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Since 2018, multiple media outlets2 have reported the suspected impacts on the health of local citizens and the water table caused by the G&R Recycling dump and similar spillover sites on Mohawk land in Kanehsatà:ke, Quebec. In 2021, a coalition of Indigenous Land Defenders and settler activists released findings and data revealed through FOI requests3 via their leak site: www.reconciliaction.org. Obtained data confirms that the site contains multiple toxins, long-term threats to water and fauna and that the federal government has known about this since 2019.

“Every level of government, from the Band Council to the Federal Government is practicing a well-rehearsed routine of passing the buck,” explains an Indigenous community activist whose name must be concealed for personal safety concerns. “The community has been frustrated with this issue for years now. And it has been consistently let down by the Government of Canada. This dump is part of a broader pattern of environmental racism, which is itself part of the colonial project of oppressing Indigenous Peoples. Minister Marc Miller has been purposefully indifferent. The Band Council has been equally apathetic and inept. The Province of Quebec has been equally complacent and useless. Their indifference verges on criminal neglect and prolongs our suffering.”

The coalition of Green and NDP MPs, along with allied civil-society organizations, is asking for a long-term solution to the dumping problem in Kanehsatà:ke. Beyond the immediate cleanup of the main site, they seek a legislative approach that recognizes the systemic issue of Indigenous and racialized communities being used as sites for the disposal of toxic waste in ways that mostly-white Canadian communities would never tolerate. Furthermore, at the request of the community’s Indigenous Land Defenders, allies are advocating for full community consultation before any further decisions affecting the health and well-being of Kanehsatà:ke’s residents are made.

“The overlap of toxic chemicals and hazardous waste dumping and Indigenous communities – as well as communities of people of colour and marginalized poor Canadians – cannot be denied. The on-going and illegal dumping on Mohawk territories in Kanehsatà:ke is one deeply troubling example,” observes Elizabeth May. “For three years, the community in Kanehsatà:ke has had their right to live in a healthy environment violated by the Trudeau government, whose representatives have refused time and again to take action in this matter,” adds Alexandre Boulerice, Deputy Leader for the NDP. “The Liberals speak often of climate justice and reconciliation, but every time it counts — like in Kanehsatà:ke — they’re nowhere to be seen. It’s time to go beyond the rhetoric and actually take action in issues of environmental racism.”

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Available for commentary:

MP Elizabeth May (Green Party), contact: Debra Eindiguer, debra.eindiguer@greenparty.ca, 613-240-8921

MP Alexandre Boulerice (NDP), contact: Lisa Cerasuolo,
lcerasuolo@boulerice.org, 514-581-5288

Allied group campaign coordinator, contact: Louis Ramirez, louis.ramirez@protonmail.com, 514 974 5069

References:

1. Full list of allied civil-society organizations here: https://www.reconciliaction.org/groups-groupes

​2. The G&R facility has operated on the Mohawk reserve of Kanehsatà:ke for many years. It has been widely documented in the media, with two recent articles in the Toronto Star, as well as two recent articles in La Presse, and an award-winning exposé in Ricochet Media in September of 2020. Prior to this, articles from La Presse drawing attention to the issue date as far back as July 2018.

​3. Documents accessed through FOI requests accessible here: https://cryptpad.fr/drive/#/2/drive/view/D4ik9tXfxRczpPKB0mzmIlTzgW+xjLdqG7xmgDJoeMU/

​4. Full research synthesis on G&R facility available here: https://www.reconciliaction.org

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Speaker: Ms. May
Time: 02/03/2022 15:11:48
Context: Question

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP): Mr. Speaker, in the last Parliament, Lenore Zann, former member for Cumberland—Colchester, introduced a landmark bill, Bill C-230, to develop a federal strategy for environmental racism and a move toward environmental justice.

The environment committee after widespread support in this place studied the bill and made amendments. I recently had the honour to reintroduce it as Bill C-226 in order to work toward getting the bill passed.

I ask will parliamentarians in the House work together to ensure passage of this important bill and will the government support the bill once again?

Right Hon. Justin Trudeau (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her question and want to also thank Lenore Zann, the former member for Cumberland—Colchester, for her important work on this bill in the previous Parliament. We know that the impacts of climate change are felt more acutely by marginalized and minority groups and the bill would ensure environmental racism is addressed and prevented.

I have mandated the Minister of Environment to develop an environmental justice strategy and our support for the bill is part of our plan to seriously address this issue.

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