Environment committee  The biggest barrier is probably the cost issue, the risk of adverse costs, even the cost of hiring a lawyer to access the courts. Certainly, in our experience at Ecojustice Canada, we do many litigations, and in Canada it's the cost risk. It's not as bad, I must say, in Federal

Environment committee  Our recommendation in terms of enforcement went with the recommendation with respect to a federal obligation to ensure the government doesn't perpetuate environmental racism. Should the federal government fail to meet that obligation, it would give citizens a tool in order to enf

Environment committee  I would say yes, I do. In my own work, I am often jealous of the excess of information and data available in the U.S. compared to Canada. That's not just at the federal level. I would say it's at the provincial level, too. With respect to your point about collecting data for pr

Environment committee  I'm an engineer, so I love to dive into stuff about data. I was referring to the comparison between what the United States has—something called EJSCREEN, which stands for environmental justice screen—versus the paucity of what we have in Canada. The closest thing I can point to i

Environment committee  I'm not sure I could advise on how it would best be handled, but absolutely, it would strengthen the bill to have a reference to UNDRIP in the bill. Whether it's in the preamble or written into the actual content of the bill I can't really speak to, but certainly I would support

Environment committee  I would agree with Ms. Gue's comment in that respect. I would want to honour the focus that the drafters of this bill placed on environmental racism. I wouldn't want to see it diluted—I don't know if that is the right word—or broadened to cover all the aspects of environmental ju

Environment committee  Yes. I can certainly talk a bit about what I said in my five minutes. We suggested an additional provision that would actually put an obligation on the federal government not to perpetuate environmental racism through its own decision-making, whether it be through environmental a

Environment committee  In terms of the redress, the backward-looking aspect, that's a little harder. The bill speaks to compensation within the strategy, and I think that is one aspect that could help with the redress.

Environment committee  Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the invitation to appear today to speak to this critically important bill to develop a national strategy to address environmental racism. As Lisa already said, the horrific occurrences of the last few weeks have made it even more apparent how d