Mr. Speaker, I thank the member from Waterloo for his comments. He is right about the integration of the economy and the environment. Clearly that has to be the future practice. Therein lies the challenge not only for our government but for provincial governments across the land and governments across the world.
When I was at the OECD meetings a few weeks ago one of the things we stressed is that we should share the Es in the OECD; that is to say the environment and the economy. One of the suggestions Canada put forward in a very practical way when we discussed how often ministers should meet was that perhaps we should have more infrequent meetings but have the meetings with the OECD ministers of finance and economy together with the ministers of the environment. If we did that we would move the files much more rapidly than sometimes happens with the frustrations by all governments in balancing and costing the environment into the economic equation.
The member also asks about our plan for the Arctic. As he probably knows, there are two very important conferences coming up. I believe my new parliamentary secretary will be playing an active role in both.
One conference will be of parliamentarians from around the world. I will be attending, as well as the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the second conference dealing with the setting up of an Arctic council. The environment is in the forefront of those concerns because development elsewhere is having a detrimental effect on the environment of the Arctic which should be kept as a polished jewel.