Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Hastings—Lennox and Addington for his hard work on the environment committee.
I am pleased to announce that our government has ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a legally binding global agreement to reduce human-generated mercury emissions. Today the ambassador and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations deposited the instrument of ratification at the UN headquarters in New York City.
While we have reduced our own mercury emissions by over 90% in the last 40 years, more must be done to reduce global emissions that have had an impact on Canada, on our Arctic ecosystem, and on the health of Canadians, in particular, vulnerable Canadians and Inuit.