Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister. It concerns remarks made in the House by the Minister of the Environment on January 24.
At that time she said with regard to the selection of a site for the environmental secretariat of NAFTA:
The selection will be made based on the environmental performance of those cities.
She also said:
The selection would be made with no politics involved.
On Friday the same minister told the House that the reality was that politics was about making difficult decisions in the best interest of the country.
Since the independent consultant's report was submitted on one day and the decision to award the secretariat to Montreal was made the very next day, what actual criteria came into play? Was it environmental? Was it political? Or, was it federal pork barrelling?