Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Chair. Thanks to the members for having us. It's a real privilege to be speaking on behalf of Ecojustice. Certainly the topic you have embarked upon is one of primary importance to Canadians, as it is this committee, despite the fact that there is a steep learning cur

Environment committee  On occasion, but not necessarily. There--

Environment committee  I think that's an interesting proposal that I would disagree with entirely. The reason I most disagree with it--and I'm actually surprised that you wouldn't disagree with it--is that the stated position of this government is that they're going to be watching what happens in the U

Environment committee  That would be part of our mission, yes.

Environment committee  I think it's speculative. And at the end of the day, we would probably prefer not to go court, and we would probably prefer to enter into a dialogue with the government as to what appropriate policies could be enacted to make sure that we didn't need to go to court.

Environment committee  That would be a matter of some interpretation.

Environment committee  No. What I would say is that this bill isn't about carbon taxes. That's transparent. However--

Environment committee  No, but I mean this is a line of questioning that is consistent with the previous meeting, which goes to this politically contentious issue of carbon taxes. What I would say is that I would agree that the enactment of this bill would reflect a legislative commitment, on the part

Environment committee  Yes, absolutely, quite possibly. But as many of our speakers have already mentioned, this is focused on guaranteeing participation and guaranteeing access to information, which then allows government decision-makers to engage with citizens to hopefully prevent that end-of-the-lin

Environment committee  I'm not suggesting that it's where we have to go--

Environment committee  --but I'm suggesting that it's one mechanism that could strengthen the environmental governance regime in Canada.

Environment committee  I don't think to this date the courts have done so; however, in the litigation referred to previously, the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act litigation, the principle of justiciability was raised. It would be an interesting question to see how the courts dealt with that in the co

Environment committee  No, not at all. But all this discussion leaves me a little afraid, and I come back to the point Mr. Warawa raised. History tells us that, despite the various provincial and territorial statements in favour of environmental legislation, there have not been many lawsuits. We are ta

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  It's a good question. I believe the answer is yes. It is possible that it would increase the ability of members of the public, or of any kind of group, to go before the courts to ask that measures be put in place to protect the environment. You should also know that clause 23 on