I have only held the position of Minister of the Environment of New Brunswick since October 2006. Ministers come and go rather quickly, both at the provincial and federal levels. As I have just indicated, the most important thing for us to do is to pursue our dialogue.
I had the opportunity to meet with my provincial counterparts as well as Mr. Baird, the federal Minister of the Environment. We can be confident that things will change because the provincial and federal governments are really intent on meeting common objectives. Setting objectives is rather easy. Everyone agrees on the objectives that we should meet. The hard part is finding how we will achieve them.
Of course, each province has its reasons to want one thing rather than another. For example, it is much easier to produce electricity pollution-free in Quebec than it is in New Brunswick, which is extremely dependent on coal. It is important that we pursue our dialogue through the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. More important still, members have to keep on meeting to ensure a healthy environment and the high quality of our air and water.
We must continue our discussions and keep on setting common objectives, but we also have to talk about the objectives on which there is less consensus.