Bill No. 23 61st Legislature - 2nd Session An Act Respecting the Right to a Healthy Environment Introduced: 12/12/2025 Bill Type: Private Member's Public Bill Sponsored by: David COON Status: Second Reading (Motion Defeated)
Chamber
new_brunswick
Stage
Introduced
This New Brunswick bill would have established a legal right for residents to live in a healthy environment.
Key Changes
- Would have established a legal right to a healthy environment for New Brunswick residents
- Could have provided a legal basis for residents to challenge environmentally harmful actions or decisions
- May have imposed new obligations on the provincial government to consider environmental health in decision-making
- The bill was defeated at Second Reading and did not become law
Gotchas
- The bill was defeated at Second Reading (22 votes against), so it did not advance and has no legal effect
- The full text of the bill was not available in the provided source, so specific provisions, definitions, and enforcement mechanisms cannot be confirmed
- Similar environmental rights legislation exists in other Canadian jurisdictions, such as Quebec, providing potential models for what this bill may have proposed
- As a private member's bill from an opposition Green Party MLA, it faced limited likelihood of passage in a legislature where another party held the majority
Who's Affected
- New Brunswick residents, particularly those in communities near industrial or environmental hazards
- Provincial government departments responsible for environmental regulation
- Industries operating in New Brunswick subject to environmental oversight
- Environmental advocacy groups and legal organizations
Vibes
0 responses
Gotchas
- The bill was defeated at Second Reading (22 votes against), so it did not advance and has no legal effect
- The full text of the bill was not available in the provided source, so specific provisions, definitions, and enforcement mechanisms cannot be confirmed
- Similar environmental rights legislation exists in other Canadian jurisdictions, such as Quebec, providing potential models for what this bill may have proposed
- As a private member's bill from an opposition Green Party MLA, it faced limited likelihood of passage in a legislature where another party held the majority
Summary
Bill No. 23 was a private member's bill introduced by Green Party MLA David Coon in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly in December 2025. It aimed to formally recognize and protect the right of New Brunswick residents to a healthy environment, which would have given people a legal basis to challenge actions or policies that harm environmental health. The bill was debated at Second Reading in March 2026 but was defeated by a vote of 22, meaning the majority of MLAs did not support moving it forward. Because the full text of the bill is not available in the provided information, the specific mechanisms, definitions, and enforcement tools it proposed cannot be detailed here. However, bills of this type typically aim to embed environmental rights into provincial law, potentially allowing citizens or courts to hold governments and industries accountable for environmental harm. This type of legislation reflects a broader movement in Canada and internationally to recognize environmental rights as human rights. Similar provisions exist in Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and have been discussed at the federal level under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
Automatically generated from bill text using Claude
Vibes
0 responses