Pollution is limited through a wide variety of statutes of Parliament and provincial legislatures. Regulatory standards are developed under the legal authority of these statutes and through a process of consultation between government and industry. Interest groups, such as trade unions, environmental groups, and advisory groups are also involved in these consultations. The primary force for regulations is public health. This has led to a concentration on air and water quality affected by stack emissions and sewage and on toxic substance that pose the most obvious and dramatic threat to human health.
Most environmental regulation is technology based.
Only after all technologically practical or feasible steps are taken will any environmental damage be accepted. This form of regulation results in a lower degree of uniformity in the application of regulatory standards. If a firm is discovered to be in breach of a standard then a penalty is set to capture the firm's savings from not having complied, and thereby eliminate its incentive to devalue the natural stock. The 1970s and 1980s pollution control legislation reflects this way of thinking. Very few criminal offenses associated with environmental protection statues and regulations have been laid in Canada due to the fact that each environmental problem has unique characteristics on a variety of variables that are weighed in the development and enforcement of regulations.