Designing an environmentally responsible constitution

The authors believe any new Canadian Constitution that hopes to start us on the road to environmental responsibility, will have to include provisions of three kinds devoted especially to helping Canadian citizens and authorities to govern themselves in ways that serve environmental well-being. The three categories are as follows: provisions to recognize respect for the environment as fundamental value and to outline the implications of this recognition; provisions to establish a set of rights recognizing the role of the public and their governments in enhancing and protecting the environment; and provisions for the distribution of powers to establish concurrent jurisdiction of federal and provincial authorities and to ensure paramountcy for the jurisdiction with the strictest regulation.