ABSTRACT
The National Environment Committee of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is comprised of union representatives from both public and private sectors across Canada. Workplace Health and Safety Committee and became a full standing committee of the CLC in 1990. The CLC Pollution Prevention Strategy is aimed at fighting a single hazard which harms workers, communities, and the physical environment, albeit in somewhat different ways and to differing degrees. The obstacle to realizing the CLC'.s program is a general unwillingness on the part of governments to subject environmental protection to effective legislation. The CLC strategy has four main elements: zero discharge, toxics use reduction, Workers' Environmental Rights, and Pollution Prevention and Control Programs. Jurisdiction over the environment is not defined in the Canadian Constitution and court cases have done little to clarify the issue. In the area of environmental protection, business has pushed a willing federal government in the direction of voluntary programs, to the exclusion of effective legislation and regulation.
