House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2015, with 70% of the vote.
The Environment June 20th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, as reflected in my earlier comments, protecting the health of Canadians is extremely important to this government and Environment Canada. I am not aware of this oversight but I will look into it and I will get back to the member. I can assure her that any exposure I have had to Environment Canada investigative processes is done with the full integrity and adherence to the process of the law.
The Environment June 20th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, speaking of harm, what I am most concerned about on the environment file are the health issues in relation to pollution.
What the government has done in the first four months is introduce a new pollution law for base smelters. We have introduced a new pollution law to reduce sulphur and diesel. We have banned 10 tonnes of mercury out of our environment.
This week the Minister of Health and I have taken a huge step to protect the health of Canadians by being the first country in the world to prohibit any new products which contain a node toxin, which causes cancer in Canadians.
Canadians want us to protect their health. That is what we are doing.
The Environment June 20th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, as I have said, for 13 years the Liberals focused on programs of waste with no results. Their solution to the corner they backed themselves into on Kyoto was spending billions of dollars on international credits overseas in places like China and Russia.
We are going to invest money right here at home. We are introducing new pollution laws. We are banning toxins that cause cancer in Canadians. That means cleaner air, cleaner water and clean health for Canadians.
The Environment June 20th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, what I would like to talk about is what is important to Canadians, and that is the health of Canadians in regard to our environment. For 13 years the Liberals focused on voluntary action and were afraid to regulate, afraid to ban and afraid to create new pollution laws.
In just four months we have created two new pollution laws, and just this week, the health minister and I acted and Canada has become the first country in the world to ban a known toxin that causes cancer in Canadians. That is action to protect the health of Canadians.
The Environment June 20th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, maybe we will talk about something substantive instead.
For 13 years the Liberals focused on rhetoric instead of substance--
The Environment June 20th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, that is ridiculous. I have done no such thing. The Environment Canada website is a very dynamic website full of all kinds of excellent information provided by our department.
No website has ever been turned off. No links to international sites have been taken down. One can still access the Kyoto accord site through the department website. This is ridiculous.
This government has absolutely nothing to bury and nothing to hide. The only thing we are doing is making sure that we have an environmental record that we can be proud of.
The Environment June 19th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, I can assure members that the Minister of Health and I work very closely on a number of health impacts on Canadians, particularly air pollution. One thing I learned this week that made me very concerned is that not only has Canada fallen behind in every industry sector on air pollution compared to the United States, but there are areas where we do not even have regulation for air pollution because the last government completely ignored the issue of air pollution in Canada.
The Minister of Health and I will be working with provincial health authorities consulting on this. We will also be bringing forward regulation to curb air pollution.
The Environment June 19th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, let me reiterate that after 13 years of Liberal rule, Canada now ranks 28 out of 29 OECD countries on air pollution and we are 35% above target.
I am reviewing all the programs related to climate change. I can assure this House that any of the programs that are effective and affordable and that will reduce air pollution and reduce greenhouse gases will be kept on by this government.
The Environment June 19th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Resources has tried to get this point across to the opposite party. There is not one program that has been cancelled by this government that was not on the chopping block of the previous government. The review process that was undertaken by the Privy Council Office was begun by the Liberal Party of Canada. Any program that is not being continued was either terminated or had fulfilled its obligations. We are not cancelling any program other than those.
The Environment June 19th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, I would remind the party opposite that this did not become an issue on January 23. This has been an issue for Canadians for years and years and finally there is a government in power that is actually addressing it through action.
I can assure the hon. member that the issue is adaptation, which definitely is what is occurring in terms of mitigation of adaptation in her area. We are looking at it very closely and we are working with the government in her region.