Mr. Speaker, questioned by the Bloc Quebecois, the Minister of the Environment stated that officials of her department had defended Canada's position on PCB exports before an American panel, but on checking, this could not be ascertained.
Cornered, the Deputy Prime Minister went on to state yesterday that she had written to the chief administrative officer of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Carol Browner. However, according to the chief of operations in charge of relations between the agency and the Canadian government, no letter was ever received for Mrs. Browner. Either the EPA does not pay much attention to letters from the minister and misplaces them or, contrary to what she said, the minister never sent the letter in question.
The Bloc Quebecois defies the minister to produce within the hour the letter she claims to have sent before June 9.