CEPA Webinar #3, Fall 2022 - Senator McCallum Speaking Notes

I want to especially thank CELA, Nature Canada, Ecojustice, Environmental Defense, David Suzuki Foundation, and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, for all your advocacy and for informing the work that we do. [...] What about other legislation that impacts both the environment and the lives of First Nations, Metis, Inuit and non-status Peoples? People continue to claim that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was passed into law, but that is not the case. [...] While Bill S-5 was before the Senate earlier this year, I had made a number of amendments to the Bill, including adding reference to the term, “vulnerable environment.” Although this amendment passed the Senate, I have been advised that there is some concern around this term in the House of Commons. [...] When it comes to the law itself, do I feel that CEPA and Bill S-5 will address the myriad of issues brought forward through the pre-study undertaken by the Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and 3 Speech, Webinar for CELA and Nature Canada re CEPA October 18, 2022 Natural Resources, of which I am a member? No, I do not. [...] In the absence of the proper steps being taken, how, then, can we believe that we have the right to a healthy environment? And how did we become a people who need protection when we were once sovereign nations? These are the questions I continue to grapple with.