Mr. Speaker, it is always good to be here at the adjournment proceeding hour, especially with my colleague from Simcoe—Grey, who seems to have amassed a lot of practice lately. It is good to be here tonight to chat about shale gas practices.
It is important to note that my colleague, in his original question, which was posed in the House on May 3 of this year, said:
Even though this is mainly a provincial matter, the minister has confirmed....
I am glad that my colleague does recognize that this particular issue is mainly a provincial matter. That said, there are several different initiatives in provincial jurisdictions that are happening on this topic right now. There is an online public registry, launched this past January in British Columbia. There is a strategic environmental assessment under way in the province of Quebec and a review being conducted in Nova Scotia. As well, the Government of Alberta has announced that public disclosure rules for chemical additives used in hydraulic fracturing are planned in the coming year.
As we have also talked about in the House, and the Minister of the Environment has spoken to this as well, Environment Canada has asked the Council of Canadian Academies to assess what is known about the potential environmental impacts from shale gas production.
As we have said several times in the House, we are looking forward to the results of this study. We are also working, as we always do, with our provincial counterparts on this important issue.
Here are some other undertakings that are happening across the country. Earlier this year the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers posted proactive rules for disclosure of fracturing fluids for its member companies.
Some other things that are interesting to note on our government's track record on the environment, especially when it comes to the health and safety of Canadians with chemicals, is our world-class chemical management plan. We have seen the assessment and listing of several thousand different chemicals, and this has been a great success. It has actually been looked at as a model internationally for something that has been very successful in managing chemicals in a very pragmatic, science-based and transparent way.
I will close with the first part of my colleague's statement, where he mentioned greenhouse gas emissions. The interesting thing to note in our most recent greenhouse gas emissions inventory, earlier this year, is that even though Canada only produces 2% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions in total, we have been very active in pursuing a sector-by-sector regulatory approach to pragmatically reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced in a way that still balances real results with economic growth.
In that greenhouse gas emissions inventory, we saw, for the first time, the stabilization of the growth of greenhouse gas emissions while the economy grew.
Also earlier this year, our government posted regulations for greenhouse gas emissions for the coal-fired electricity sector. This is a very good thing for this country, and it was done in a transparent way. It was done in a way to ensure that we have supply of energy, as well as being cognizant of pricing of electricity, again focusing on a balance with real results.
As the minister also mentioned in the House earlier this year Canada is well on its way, over 50% of the way, to making our Copenhagen targets, which is a great positive thing.
I thank the member for his question, and I look forward to working with him on the environment committee this year.