Environment committee  That would be a pleasure. First of all, thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. Why does Canada need an environmental bill of rights? I believe there are four compelling reasons. The first is Canada' s poor environmental record. This record has been demonstrated by studies from the Conference Board of Canada showing Canada ranking 15th out of 17 wealthy industrialized nations on a range of 15 environmental indicators.

Environment committee  I'm not that familiar with the federal whistle-blower legislation, so I'll pass the torch to Professor Elgie.

Environment committee  If I could, I will just add one thing to what Professor Elgie has said. Another significant distinction between a private prosecution and the environmental protection actions that are available under this environmental bill of rights is that a private prosecution is always after the fact, after the environmental damage has been done, but the way Bill C-469 is drafted, it would actually allow environmental protection actions to be brought to prevent the environmental damage from occurring, which is of course in line with the objective of preventing damage.

Environment committee  No, I haven't, but there is a very strong pattern of correlation. My research confirms publications of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. They conduct environmental performance reviews of national environmental performance every five years for OECD member nations.

Environment committee  I think what you have to consider when you're thinking in broad terms about the right to a healthy environment is that it's really like any other human right, whether it's the right to freedom of expression or the right to freedom of religion; it's a broad concept and it's actually easier to define in terms of its violation than define exactly what it entails.

Environment committee  I'll tackle that. I actually have several pages in my brief talking about all of the international declarations and resolutions that recognize the right to a healthy environment. When you combine those international resolutions and declarations with the state practice of 170 out of 192 UN nations now, the right to a healthy environment is very close to becoming a principle of customary international law or a general principle of international law, in which case it becomes binding on Canada regardless of whether we have domestic recognition of it.

Environment committee  No. The intention of recognizing that Canadians have a responsibility to protect the environment is actually not meant to be enforceable. It's meant to be encouraging and hortatory, if you will. There are 80 national constitutions that include a citizen's duty to protect the environment.

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair, honourable members, and Commissioner Gelfand. I'd like to start by complimenting the committee on tackling this subject of the Federal Sustainable Development Act. It's potentially a very important tool in accelerating Canada's progress towards a sustainable future.

Environment committee  I have one final recommendation, and that is to create a parliamentary committee for the future, which is something that Finland did. Finland has 17 members of Parliament on a committee for the future that really looks into the future to try to identify what challenges we're going to face and how we can address those.

Environment committee  I'll take a different perspective from the earlier witness. It is really useful, and this is a good context, to look at Canada's performance benchmarked against other wealthy western industrialized nations. There is an independent, non-partisan, highly respected think tank based in Ottawa called the Conference Board of Canada, which every year compares 17 different wealthy industrialized nations in terms of their performance on a number of metrics in the areas of economy, innovation, health, and the environment.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Cullen. Yes, I would say that the European Union has a law that requires strategic environmental assessment. They have a high degree of compliance with that law because it's a legal obligation. There are consequences that flow if the obligation is not fulfilled.

Environment committee  Thank you. These principles are found widely in sustainable development legislation both at the provincial level here in Canada, and in international sustainable development laws. Take the first one, the polluter-pays principle. We hear a lot of talk in Canada about the polluter-pays principle, yet when we look at international comparisons we find that Canada uses pollution taxes to a much lesser degree than any other western industrialized country.

Environment committee  I think it's important to distinguish between the broad sustainable development objectives that Canada has as a country. For example, Canada wants to and aspires to become a low-carbon economy. That's a broad objective, and then the targets are the kinds of specific numerically measurable things that you're talking about.

Environment committee  Yes, I can't say that I've seen those kinds of innovative tools in Europe. I know that in some Latin American countries there are financial penalties both for senior civil servants and for politicians who fail to comply with legal requirements, but that's not something that is really common or widespread.

Environment committee  Thank you. If the government doesn't comply with its own legislated requirements, the consequences are that citizens, members of the public, can then hold the government accountable by taking them to court. If you look back at the history of environmental assessment in Canada writ large, you will see that for decades we had an unenforceable cabinet directive that wasn't applied, and that it was a court decision brought by citizens in Saskatchewan that actually led to the drafting of the first Canadian environmental assessment law.