Thirty Years of Activity at Quebec's Ministry of the Environment: A Preliminary Inventory

This text describes the evolution of policies at Quebec's Ministry of the Environment between 1973 & 2003, & attempts to discern the principal tendencies regarding the Ministry's use of regulatory, economic, voluntary, & direct instruments for the protection of air, water, & soil. The analysis of the data initially demonstrates that the number of interventions increased between 1983 & 1998. These interventions, as the authors remark, draw more often on regulatory instruments against water pollution, voluntary ones against air pollution, & economic ones against soil pollution, particularly for the management of solid waste. These results are interpreted from the perspective of "new governance" theory as it presents itself in the analysis of public policy. Tables. Adapted from the source document.