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The Fisheries Act and federal‐provincial environmental regulation: duplication or complementarity?
Author(s) -
Nemetz Peter N.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
canadian public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.361
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1754-7121
pISSN - 0008-4840
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-7121.1986.tb00817.x
Subject(s) - legislature , jurisdiction , enforcement , government (linguistics) , business , legislation , public administration , complementarity (molecular biology) , task force , public economics , environmental planning , political science , economics , law , geography , philosophy , linguistics , biology , genetics
The Neilson Task Force Report recommended a stronger commitment of the federal government to environmental issues and a more effective role at the federal level for the Department of the Environment in addressing these issues. Yet the multi‐authored task force reports are somewhat ambivalent in recommendations relating to provincial‐federal jurisdiction. A central question is whether the presence of both levels of government in this regulatory domain serves the goal of efficient resource allocation. Using evidence drawn from the past decade of regulation in the area of water pollution control in British Columbia, this paper provides one test of the hypothesis that the goal of environmental protection is well served by concurrent federal‐provincial legislative and regulatory activity and the continuation of federal enforcement under section 33 of the Fisheries Act. It is concluded that there is both a theoretical rationale and direct empirical evidence to justify the presence of both provincial and federal levels of government in the domain of pollution control in Canada. A federal legislative and regulatory presence, as exemplified by the Fisheries Act, is especially important in this area when provincial regulatory resources or will are weak.