Mr. Speaker, as Earth Day is a positive day, I will keep my comments in a positive vein.
Earth Day is a time for all of us to look inward and examine what many of us take for granted, the planet on which we live.
I am pleased to see that we are on a path through the forest that leads toward a sustainable future and that we are addressing, although sometimes quite slowly, ways to prevent pollution thus ensuring a healthy planet for our children and our grandchildren.
The Brundtland commission's definition of sustainability: "Leaving our planet to our children in the same or better condition than the one that we inherited" should be the goal of each and every one of us. In order to achieve this goal we need to get into the regular habit of doing more with less.
Although I agree with the minister that government should be involved, I feel that it is more up to each and every one of us personally, not someone else, to do what is right. Only when we take responsibility and learn to live our everyday lives by conserving resources will we have achieved this goal of sustainability.
As I said earlier, we are still on the path in the forest. Sustainability is still some distance away. Only when we live each and every day as Earth Day will we have achieved that long awaited goal.