Ministry of Environment and Parks (British Columbia)

The ministry is responsible for the effective protection, management and conservation of the province's natural resources.

[2] The "Department of Lands and Works" was established under the Constitution Act in 1871 following the admission of the Colony of British Columbia to the Dominion of Canada.

The original functions of the Department of Environment were transferred from the "Department of Lands, Forests and Water Resources", whose functions had been split between the "Ministry of Environment" and "Ministry of Forests".

The department was responsible for the management and protection of land, air and water resources including Crown lands (except for matters under the jurisdiction of the Department of Forests), water rights, and pollution control.

Throughout all of these successive name changes and restructurings, the ministry had retained the same functional responsibilities since 1991.

[8] Following the 2017 British Columbia general election, the ministry was renamed the "Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy" with an emphasis on directly addressing the issue of climate change in the province.

The Ministry of Environment and Parks manages several secondary agencies: In December 2018, Premier John Horgan's NDP party and Andrew Weaver's Green party jointly announced CleanBC, a plan that would reach 75% of the province's greenhouse gas emissions target.

For industry, the government agreed to help fund clean energy firms while improving the efficiency of existing manufacturing and fossil fuel operations.

[15] It includes changes on: In 2011, the British Columbia announced plans to transfer the cost of recycling for packaging and printed paper from municipal governments to product manufactures.