Finance committee  I think the government could do many things at the same time.

Finance committee  If I looked at the priorities of the public and the government in terms of the importance of the environment right now, measures that encourage business to make investments that will improve environmental outcomes have to be a very high priority for this government, and for busin

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  It's for the government to propose a regime, but what we're saying is that we have to make that regime work in practice. We certainly have been working very closely with the government—the previous government and the current government—to discuss how to—

Finance committee  Teeth versus voluntary? I think that if the government sat down with industry and talked about voluntary targets, industry would be very willing to move forward on that basis.

Finance committee  I can't speak for the auto sector.

Finance committee  I don't represent either the energy industry or the auto industry, so I'm at a loss. We have proposed an environmental performance agreement with targets for greenhouse gas emissions. We've submitted that to the government. We've worked with your administration and with the curre

Finance committee  Thank you very much. The Canadian Fertilizer Institute is an industry association representing manufacturers and wholesale and retail distributors of nitrogen, phosphate, potash, and sulphur fertilizers. We note that for the last few years, we've made our presentation to this co

Environment committee  Again, to respond to your secondary question about municipalities, I'm not here to talk about municipalities but just that we got sideswiped when the federal government found it difficult to manage a problem that was at the municipal level, because municipalities are creatures of

Environment committee  Sure, and I understand that, but the thing is, what is the problem? The problem is that I don't think there are people in Victoria who don't want their sewage treated before it goes into the ocean. I think they want that done. The problem is that's very expensive. They don't have

Environment committee  It's not industry; it's people who live in Victoria and pay the bills for municipal waste-water effluent. In terms of our industry, the converse is true. We don't have a problem with managing our products. We don't have a problem with wanting to step up in terms of stewardship,

Environment committee  Phytosanitary problems in trade are legendary, and they're the most difficult to face. There is a risk to using the toxic label for our exports in Canada. There are only a few countries that export potassium chloride. Coming back to the question Mr. Godfrey asked about the onus

Environment committee  Nutrients--nitrogen, phosphate, potassium--occur naturally in the environment. They're all around us all the time as part of the life cycle. There are many sources of nutrients that can lead to problems in water. Municipal waste water that's not treated, and even when it is trea

Environment committee  I'll take that, because I think that's a political question. I think that members of Parliament come to bring common sense to the development of laws. Otherwise you would have to be a lawyer to be a member of Parliament, and you don't. If people wanted to send only lawyers to P

Environment committee  But isn't the true value the ability of the federal government and the provincial governments to work together to manage those issues for the betterment of the public, instead of trying to apply one word, five letters, to this whole broad range of substances that are used and in