This course examines how the environmental policy process in Canada works. In the course, students will become familiar with Canadian environmental organizations and government structures, the courts’ interpretation of environmental legislation, and the historic development of, and changes associated with, the environmental movement in Canada and in North America.
The course will identify and evaluate some of the environmental-policy tools that governments have used, or might use in the future. These policy tools include regulation, environmental assessment, and mediation (multi-stakeholder discussions and bargaining) as well as market-based tools such as environmental taxes and user fees, green products, environmental subsidies (to recycling, for example), and subsidy removals (from extractive industries or energy-inefficient modes of transportation, for example).
The study of environmental policy will also help students to understand the policy-making process as a whole—that is, how governments make decisions. Political Science 325 situates environmental policy within selected, real-world examples of environmental decision making in Canada. It also considers some of the connections between environmental protection and issues such as urban planning, employment, and social equity, which governments must resolve or oversee in some way. There are close connections between environmental protection and each of these concerns. For example, urban planning virtually determines transportation patterns and systems, which, in turn, affect such things as air quality and habitat protection.
Outline
Political Science 325: Canadian Environmental Policy and Politics is organized into seventeen units divided into seven parts:
Part I: Environmental Values
Unit 1: An Introduction to Environmental Values, Policy, and Politics
Unit 2: Environment and the Law in a Federal System
Part II: The Environment and Legal Systems at Various Levels
Unit 3: Canada’s Judicial System
Unit 4: Aboriginal Law and the Environment
Unit 5: Political Parties, Political Movements, and Public and Special Interest Groups
Unit 6: Environmental Law in the Global Context
Part III: Environmental Policy and Its Tools
Unit 7: Private and Public Law
Unit 8: Environmental-Policy Tools: Persuasive, Regulatory, and Coercive
Unit 9: Market-Based Environmental-Policy Tools
Part IV: Specific Environmental Issues
Unit 10: The Tar Sands and Climate Change
Unit 11: Water Quality, Agriculture, and Aquaculture
Part V: Environmental Assessment and Other Tools of Analysis
Unit 12: Environmental Assessment, Life-Cycle Analysis, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and other Sustainability Indicators
Part VI: Crown Lands and Urban Planning
Unit 13: Crown Lands and the Species at Risk Act
Unit 14: Urban Planning
Part VII: Protecting Environmental Rights
Unit 15: Using the Courts
Unit 16: Administrative Decision-Making Processes
Unit 17: Environmental Rights in Canada
Evaluation
To receive credit for POLI 325, you must complete all of the assignments, and achieve a course composite grade of at least D (50 percent) and a grade of at least 50 percent on the final examination.
Activity
Weight
Internet Research Assignment
20%
Mid-Term Assignment
20%
Research Essay
25%
Final Exam
35%
Total
100%
The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
Muldoon, P., et al. (2015). An introduction to environmental law and policy in Canada (2nd ed.). Toronto: Emond Montgomery Publications. (Print)
Other Materials
All other course materials are available online.
Challenge for credit
Overview
The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.
Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.
Evaluation
To receive credit for the POLI 325 challenge registration, you must achieve an overall grade of at least D (50 percent) on the challenge examination.
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized study counterparts.