Passing the Buck: Federalism and Canadian Environmental Policy

250 Pages·1996·13.608 MB·English

by  Kathryn Harrison

Passing the Buck
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Kathryn Harrison
Passing the Buck:
Federalism and Canadian
Environmental Policy
UBCPress /Vancouver
© UBC Press 1996
Reprinted 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior
written permission of the publisher.
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper °°
ISBN 0-7748-0557-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 0-7748-0558-7 (paperback)
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Harrison, Kathryn, 1958-
Passing the Buck
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7748-0557-9 (bound) - ISBN 0-7748-0558-7 (pbk.)
1. Environmental policy - Canada. 2. Federal-provincial relations - Canada.
I. Title.
HC120.E5H37 1996 363.7'00971 C96-910451-0
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science
Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Funding has also been provided by the University of British Columbia's K.D.
Srivastava Fund.
UBC Press gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support to its publishing program
from the Canada Council, the Province of British Columbia Cultural Services
Branch, and the Department of Communications of the Government of Canada.
UBC Press
University of British Columbia
2029 West Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
[phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
http: / / www.ubcpress.ubc.ca
For George and Sophie
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Contents
Acknowledgments / ix
1 Introduction: Federalism and Environmental Policy / 3
2 Federalism, Policy-Making, and Intergovernmental Politics / 12
3 The Constitutional Framework: Constraints and Opportunities / 31
4 The Emergence of Federal Involvement, 1969-72 / 55
5 The Federal Retreat, 1972-85 / 81
6 The Second Wave: The Re-emergence of the Federal Role,
1985-95 / 115
7 Conclusions / 162
Notes/ 178
Bibliography / 216
Index / 229
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Acknowledgments
This book could not have been completed without the assistance I
received from many sources. A graduate fellowship from the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada supported my work
on the first draft of this book, while a research grant from the same
Council assisted me at the revision stage. A research grant from the
Science Council of British Columbia funded the travel I undertook to con-
duct interviews. Finally, this book has been published with the help of a
grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided
by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Some of the material in this book has appeared in a previous form. Parts
of the chapter entitled 'Federalism, Environmental Protection, and Blame
Avoidance/ in Miriam Smith and Francois Rocher (eds.), New Trends in
Canadian Federalism, are reprinted with permission from Broadview Press.
Parts of Chapter 6 appear in a chapter entitled 'Prospects for
Harmonization in Environmental Policy,' in Douglas Brown and Janet
Hiebert (eds.), Canada: The State of the Federation, 1994, and are reprinted
with the permission of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at
Queen's University.
I am indebted to several dozen federal and provincial officials, industry
representatives, and members of environmental groups who generously
gave their time to interviews. While their names are not listed in order to
maintain confidentiality, their anonymity in no way reflects the extent of
their contribution. Sincere thanks are also owed to Andrew Fabro, the
librarian for Environment Canada's Pacific and Yukon Region, who cheer-
fully tracked down the innumerable documents I requested; to Willem
Maas and Aaron Delaney for their research assistance; and to Kent Weaver,
whose E-mail messages were a source of insightful and challenging ques-
tions. Jean Wilson at UBC Press has been a supportive and, above all,
patient colleague. I am especially grateful to the three members of my