Research On Canadian Environmental Policy

The Canadian government has always attached great importance to environmentalprotection while Pierre Trudeau’s term (1968-1984) is founding era in modernenvironmental history in Canada. The environmental policies in this period wereimportant contents and should not be neglected.The birth of environmental policies in Trudeau government based on internationaland domestic backgrounds.Investigating the development of Canadian environmentalhistory, the environmental policies in Trudeau’s term showed the characteristics ofenvironmental politics and environmental diplomacy in Canada, including its role inenvironmental movement of the world.In the waves of the domestic and foreign environmental movements, the Trudeaugovernment could not avoid the questions the environmentalists had raised. It wasdetermined to mount an attack on environmental problems and to establish the newmachinery to make that attack effective, including constructing new institutions anddepartments, making new environmental laws and rules and implementinginstitutionalized environmental assessment and review. In terms of constructing newinstitutions, the most evident step taken by the Trudeau government in response toenvironmental concerns was the establishment of the Department of the Environment(or Environment Canada). As for making new environmental laws, a steady flow oflegislation in1970s vastly enhanced the capacity of the federal government to provideenvironmental protection. As far as institutionalized environmental assessment, Canadawas one of the earliest countries to explore it. Then environmental policies evolvedfrom the initial phase of combating pollution by cleaning up after the event to the stageof planning to prevent pollution. Therefore, the establishment of environmentalassessment in Trudeau’s term was a great step forward.With the forming of environmental system gradually, the Trudeau governmentcarried out many outstanding environmental policies at home and abroad, mainlyincluding the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, which was a landmark in Canadianenvironmental history and its impact on the public was profound. In addition, Canadaplayed a leading role not only in combating toxic pollution, but also in dealing with acid rain and United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.The environmental policies in Pierre Trudeau government period (1968-1984) wereimportant contents in Canadian environmental history, even in the environmentalmovement of the world and should not be neglected. They constituted the basicstructure for modern environmental policies of Canada.