Digital Commons Network^™

From Idea To Practice: Sustainable Development Efforts In Manitoba, A John Sinclair, Lisa Quinn

Dalhousie Law Journal

With a renewed global interest in achieving a more sustainable society, the authors reflect on the history of institutionalizing sustainable development in their province, Manitoba, and consider its future. This paper outlines that province's approaches to developing and advancing sustainable development and discusses the success of these approaches in shaping, guiding, and furthering sustainable development in the province. This is achieved through examination of legislation and review of sustainable development documents as well as interviews with various participants in the process including members of the Manitoba Round Table for Environment and Economy and members of the more recent Manitoba Round …

Are Climate Change Policies Fair To Vulnerable Communities? The Impact Of British Columbia's Carbon Tax And Australia's Carbon Pricing Policy On Indigenous Communities, Karen Bubna-Litic, Nathalie J. Chalifour

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper compares carbon pricing policies in British Columbia and Australia in order to identify differences between carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes (ETS) from a fairness perspective. We examine how taxes and trading systems impact indigenous communities in both jurisdictions. While the regressivity of carbon pricing is a critical part of any fairness assessment, we argue that socioeconomic and cultural factors must also be taken into consideration. We discuss the importance of accompanying carbon pricing with policies that mitigate not only distributional impacts, but also additional impacts. These may be funded by the revenue generated by the policy or …

Mediation In Environmental Assessments In Canada: Unfulfilled Promise?, Meinhard Doelle, A John Sinclair

Dalhousie Law Journal

The federal environmental assessment (EA) process and most. provincial EA processes in Canada either specifically provide for mediation as an option or implicitly allow for it. Inspite of this, the actual use of mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) has been almost non-existent in Canadian EA. There is an emerging view, however that mediation could be applied usefully at points of the process when there is conflict among the parties. Such adjustments in process would signal the need for approval agencies -andproponents to give serious consideration to more collaborative techniques of participation. The objective of this article …

Ocean Policy: A Canadian Case Study, Camille Mageau, David Vanderzwaag, Susan Farlinger

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Over the years, Canada, like most other coastal nations, has developed an intricate set of policies and regulatory instruments focused on the management of traditional sectoral uses of the oceans. A decade ago, the necessary steps were taken to modernise the way in which Canadian authorities manage ocean-based activities.

Canada did not set out to design “one” comprehensive, all inclusive oceans policy. The primary approach taken was to identify, through Canada’s Oceans Act, one federal lead authority responsible for the coordination and harmonisation of existing policy and statutory instruments and to formulate a national vision and guiding principles for oceans …

From Kyoto To Marrakech; A Long Walk Through The Desert: Mirage Or Oasis?, Meinhard Doelle

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article reviews the results of four years of negotiations of the parties to the UNFCCC,3 from the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 to the Marrakech Accords in 2001. This process was intended to provide the details and operational rules needed for parties to make decisions on whether to ratify and how to implement the Kyoto Protocol in time for the start of the first commitment period in 2008. The author analyzes the Marrakech Accords with respect to the Kyoto Mechanisms, reporting, verification, compliance, and developing country issues, and concludes that the Kyoto Protocol in itself is a negligible step …