House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 1997, with 46% of the vote.
The Environment October 21st, 1997
Mr. Speaker, Canada is a member of an international community and it is committed to signing on to medium term legally binding targets in Kyoto.
In order to achieve any targets it is going to require a committed response on the part of all Canadians, every agency and every province. The federal government will be negotiating with our provincial counterparts, among others, to work with them to put in place appropriate measures.
The Environment October 21st, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I tried to make it clear yesterday that dealing with the issue of climate change will incur costs. It will incur costs for all Canadians to take action. It will incur costs if we do not take action.
With regard to any specific measures taken to address climate change, we will negotiate fully with our provincial counterparts.
The Environment October 20th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I would like to correct the erroneous impression that provinces have not been consulted. I have met with all of my provincial counterparts to discuss this issue of climate change. I will be meeting with them in a telephone conference call on Wednesday of this week. They are engaged with me on this issue. Addressing climate change will incur costs for all Canadians. I would like everybody to understand that not taking action will also incur serious costs for Canadians.
The Environment October 20th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to respond to the question which is very serious for all Canadians.
Canada has agreed that we will negotiate medium term, legally binding targets for the Kyoto, Japan meeting in December.
In my four months in office, I have been crossing this country from coast to coast to coast meeting with partners who must come together to agree on exactly what Canada's position will be. In the international forum, Canada is taking a role of trying to find a large consensus in the international community so that we do have a strong, firm and legally—
Auditor General October 7th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, as I said yesterday, the staffing cuts that are occurring are a result of the 1996 program review. It has nothing to do with our department's ability to refer to the auditor general's comments about the import and export of hazardous wastes and we will be doing everything to respond to the concerns raised by the auditor general.
Auditor General October 7th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, since April when the auditor general's information became knowledge to my department, officials have put in place measures to try to combat the weaknesses that were outlined by the auditor general.
We consider the import and export of hazardous waste to be a very serious situation. I will be looking further into this issue to make sure the necessary improvements are put in place.
Environment October 6th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the federal government is currently very engaged in preparing for the Kyoto agenda in December. As part of that ongoing work I have been meeting on a regular basis with provincial counterparts, with business and industry, with environmental NGO groups. Among those partners have indeed been representatives of the fossil fuel industry. I am very open as are my other colleagues here to their comments and concerns around meeting our objectives for Kyoto, Japan.
Acid Rain October 6th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the federal government through its various programs in collaboration with partners has been able to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by half since the 1980s. A joint report has recently indicated that we have a lot further to go, that we must continue to reduce those emissions by as much as up to 75 percent.
The federal government when meeting with energy and environment ministers from the provinces in the coming weeks will discuss the recent report and find out how we can indeed reduce the emissions in order to protect our industries and health in Canada.
Environment October 6th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the talks that are occurring right now have nothing to do with a harmonization agenda. In fact our department is very concerned about protecting our environment and the health and safety of all Canadians. Our processes of reviewing our priorities are going to ensure that those objectives are met.
Harmonization is a totally different topic. It is one whereby the federal government works collaboratively with its provincial partners on a specific agenda to make sure that the environment is protected to the highest of standards.
Environment October 6th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, I believe my colleague refers to a news item that talked about additional cuts to staffing in Environment Canada. This is not a new agenda. This results from the 1996 program review cuts. We had hoped that we would be able to prevent additional layoffs in the department through cost recovery programs, but our analysis indicated we had to take action now.