November 4, 2024

Last week, East Coast Environmental Law launched a campaign to win a right to a healthy environment in Nova Scotia. This law reform advocacy initiative was a long time coming, and it’s the product of many years and many hands. As the staff lawyer leading the initiative now, I am so excited to see it take flight.

Several years ago, East Coast Environmental Law facilitated environmental rights working groups in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Nova Scotia Environmental Rights Working Group (“NSERWG”) was especially active, and it included representation from many community groups, environmental organizations, and grassroots initiatives across the province.

In 2017, the NSWERG launched a draft Environmental Bill of Rights for Nova Scotia. Accompanying that draft bill were stories from five Nova Scotian communities that had suffered from environmental injustice, including several stories of environmental racism experienced by Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian communities. At the public launch of the draft bill, members from some of those communities spoke about their experiences and the need for Nova Scotian law to recognize and protect a human right to a clean and healthy environment.

Following the launch of the NSWERG draft bill in 2017, a private member’s bill was tabled in the provincial House of Assembly, but it ultimately failed to make it all the way through the law-making process because it did not have all-party support.

The environmental rights campaign that East Coast Environmental Law launched last week includes a new model Bill of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities for Nova Scotia. This new model bill builds on the draft bill that the NSWERG launched in 2017, keeping the original focus on the need to foster environmental justice in Nova Scotia by strengthening our provincial environmental laws.

The new model bill recognizes that we are living in a triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change, and global pollution. It recognizes the existing impacts of environmental racism on Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian communities in Nova Scotia, and it proposes legal measures that can help to prevent further instances of environmental racism in this province. It highlights the importance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and encourages the Government of Nova Scotia to implement the Declaration to protect environmental rights held by the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia. It also proposes whistleblower protections for Nova Scotians and protections from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, to enable Nova Scotians to participate in environmental decision-making and environmental protection without fear of losing their jobs or being threatened by lawsuits designed to intimidate and deter expression on matters of public interest. And, at its core, the model bill:

• says all Nova Scotians have a right to a healthy environment in which biodiversity is preserved,

• says the Government of Nova Scotia has a legal responsibility to protect the environment for present and future generations, and,

• gives Nova Scotians new and enhanced legal tools to support this work.

Getting personal for a moment—I’m an active auntie with a niece and several nephews who live and play in Nova Scotia, and I think of them in all of my work to strengthen environmental protection and climate action in this province. I believe that most Nova Scotians have this in common and want to build a safe and prosperous future for the children and youth who are with us today and the generations that will follow. I believe that’s why we have the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act (“EGCCRA”), enacted with all-party support in 2021, with its uplifting vision of creating sustainable prosperity in Nova Scotia through ambitious climate action, environmental protection, and development that helps to foster a sustainable and equitable future.

Enacting a Bill of Environmental Rights and Responsibilities for Nova Scotia would build on the important foundation laid by EGCCRA by pairing the environmental goals and objectives in EGCCRA with clear responsibilities—held by the government—to protect Nova Scotians’ collective rights to a healthy environment in which biodiversity is preserved. If it were to create new law of this kind, the Government of Nova Scotia would be the first in Atlantic Canada to take this important step, but it would be joining the governments of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, the Yukon, Ontario, and Québec, all of which have recognized and protected human rights to a healthy environment within their respective laws.

If this campaign speaks to you, I hope that you will join us by taking a look at our environmental rights campaign page and adding your voice through one or more of our engagement tools.