Mr. Speaker, the Liberals just cannot come clean on air quality for Canadians.
Despite his call for a new law on cleaner air, the Liberal member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore voted for Kyoto instead. The Liberal member for Don Valley West said that legislation for clean air standards was unnecessary. The former Liberal environment minister said that the status quo was good enough. It may be good enough for Liberals but it is not for Canadians.
The status quo for the Liberals was: record smog days; an OECD pollution ranking of 28 out of 29; and GHG emissions up 30% because of a failed Kyoto plan criticized by the environment commissioner, 11 separate environmental groups and, at one time, the NDP and the Bloc, but that was then.
Politics made strange bedfellows last week. The opposition parties' support of a Liberal bill, a new opposition Kyoto ménage à trois, at the environment committee only means a delay in clean air for Canadians.
Canadians voted for a breath of fresh air in January. Our government has delivered a clean air bill. The Liberals and the opposition need to clean up their act and vote for it.