Before Bill 23: the little-known story behind New Brunswick’s push for a right to a healthy environment

Clean air, safe drinking water, and healthy ecosystems are essential to public health and community well-being. Yet in New Brunswick, the law does not currently recognize a general right to live in a healthy environment.

Bill 23, now before the Legislative Assembly, would change that.

At stake is a simple question: whether New Brunswick is prepared to ensure that today’s children grow up in a healthy environment.

When Green Party leader David Coon introduced Bill 23, some observers assumed the idea originated in the legislature. In reality, the proposal reflects almost two decades of work by environmental organizations, nurses and community advocates in New Brunswick — and began with a simpler concern: children’s health.

Bonnie Hamilton Bogart, a nurse and former chair of the policy working group of the New Brunswick Children’s Environmental Health Collaborative, remembers those early discussions well. Health professionals were increasingly concerned about environmental factors affecting children’s health — from air pollution to contaminants in water and soil. At the time, Bogart was also working with Jane Barry, then Liberal Minister of State for Childhood Services, to develop a policy framework aimed at improving the quality of life for the province’s children.

“People forget that this began with children,” Bogart says.

In the early 2000s, research was highlighting how vulnerable children are to environmental contaminants while their bodies are still developing. In response, the New Brunswick Children’s Environmental Health Collaborative brought together public health professionals, nurses and environmental advocates to better understand how pollution can affect children.

One group within the collaborative soon began asking a question: could legislation protect children from environmental hazards?

In 2013, with the help of the New Brunswick Office of the Child and Youth Advocate, the group produced a draft law titled A Bill of Rights to Protect Children’s Health from Environmental Hazards. The proposal recognized that children have a right to grow up in environments free from harmful exposures and that governments have a responsibility to prevent such risks.

The initiative also drew support from prominent figures in children’s environmental health. Pediatrician and environmental health researcher Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, whose work has documented the global health impacts of pollution on children, spoke with members of the collaborative during its early years.

To raise awareness, the group organized a public launch of the proposed legislation in Fredericton in 2014, attended by public health officials, environmental advocates and community leaders. Among those present was New Brunswick’s Chief Medical Officer of Health at the time, Dr. Eilish Cleary.

The event also received support from Raffi Cavoukian, the internationally known children’s musician who has long championed what he calls “Child Honouring” — the idea that societies should place children’s well-being at the center of public policy.

Despite this promising start, the effort soon stalled. Several key organizers stepped away, and one of the project’s leaders, Dr. Scott Giffin, passed away. For a time, the idea of environmental rights legislation in New Brunswick seemed to fade.

But the idea did not disappear.

It was revived a few years later when Lois Corbett of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) brought together a group of stakeholders, including lawyers, environmental advocates and public health nurses.

That meeting marked a turning point.

The original proposal had focused on substantive rights — recognizing that children should be protected from environmental hazards. However, the lawyers at the table pointed out that modern environmental rights laws require more than a declaration of principle. They also require procedural tools: mechanisms that allow citizens to obtain environmental information, participate in decisions that affect their communities and seek judicial review of government actions.

Recognizing a right was the first step. Making it meaningful required legal tools that allow citizens to defend it.

With those additions, the initiative evolved into a broader environmental bill of rights.

Much of this work took place through the New Brunswick Environmental Network (NBEN), which provided organizational and administrative support for the Environmental Rights Caucus — a working group that grew out of that meeting and brought together environmental organizations, health professionals and advocates to advance environmental rights legislation in New Brunswick.

From 2019 onward, the caucus worked to raise the profile of the proposal, gathering supporters from across the province and beyond. Marg Milburn, a retired public health nurse, joined the caucus and “brought with her a tenacity and focus that propelled the campaign to new heights,” Bogart recalls.

The caucus also endorsed the global call for recognition of the human right to a healthy environment — a campaign later honored with the 2023 United Nations Human Rights Prize after the UN General Assembly recognized the right in 2022.

By the time Coon introduced the legislation in the Legislative Assembly in 2023, the proposal reflected more than a decade of work by people who believed that New Brunswickers—especially children—should have the right to a clean, healthy and ecologically balanced environment.

Existing environmental statutes regulate specific activities, but they do not recognize a general right to a healthy environment. Environmental rights laws do not replace existing regulations; they complement them by strengthening transparency, public participation and accountability in environmental decision-making.

The initiative also attracted the attention of international environmental rights scholars, including Canadian environmental lawyer David R. Boyd, who served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment from 2018 to 2024.

Boyd’s research shows that jurisdictions recognizing environmental rights often adopt stronger environmental laws and achieve better environmental outcomes.

Boyd is expected to discuss the broader significance of environmental rights legislation in an upcoming CBC interview ahead of the March 26 vote on Bill 23.

As the legislature prepares to vote on March 26, the long history behind the proposal remains largely unknown to the public.

Bill 23 now places a clear choice before New Brunswick. More than 160 countries and several Canadian jurisdictions — including provinces and territories — already recognize the right to a healthy environment in law.

On March 26, members of the Legislative Assembly will decide whether New Brunswick will join them — and whether the province is prepared to protect the environmental conditions children need to grow and thrive.

Jean Louis Deveau is chair of the Fredericton chapter of the Council of Canadians, a member organization of the New Brunswick Environmental Network (NBEN).