Alliance would massively increase fines for illegal oil dumping
PARLIAMENT HILL–The most powerful force for improving our environment is people. It’s every Canadian’s aspiration to make our environment cleaner, healthier and safer for our future. To that end, the Canadian Alliance environment policy is based on experience, science and wisdom. It affirms that people are the most important natural resource and that we must […]
Breaking Nunavut’s oil addiction
IQALUIT, NUNVUT–The wise use of resources has long been a trademark of Inuit. Inuit hunters have always harvested animals in order to sustain their families. The meat is used for food, while by-products of the animals are used for clothing, tools, shelter, heat and light. The oil from marine mammals provided the precious fuel to […]
Cutting GHG ‘most important challenge facing the world’:
Environment Minister David Anderson says cutting greenhouse gas emissions is “the most important challenge facing the world today,” and that the 2003 budget represents “the cornerstone of this government’s commitment to making a global contribution to addressing climate change.” But Mr. Anderson (Victoria, B.C.), who considers his No. 1 accomplishment in all his years as […]
Time to get tough on polluting summertime tools and toys
PARLIAMENT HILL–Our environment receives a surprising measure of pollution from our summertime tools and toys — lawnmowers, chainsaws, outboard motors and jet-skis powered by two-stroke gasoline engines. The federal government is well aware of the toll. Environment Canada several years ago estimated that a single 70-horsepower two-stroke outboard engine in one hour emits the same […]
Caccia: ‘major’ shortcomings of Environmental Assessment Act
PARLIAMENT HILL–I will put forward some of the major improvements that were made to Bill C-9 on [Canada’s Environmental Assessment Act]. I will also outline some of the major shortcomings. If time permits I will make brief comments on interventions made by my colleagues during the debate so far. The improvements are the following. It […]
It’s time to take action on air pollution: NDP MP Comartin
In less than one month, summer officially begins and with it the prospect of increased “smog days.” In Canada 16,000 people will die prematurely as a result of air pollution and 5,000 of those directly from smog. Last year, there were record number of smog days throughout Canada with the bulk of those days occurring […]
Yukon’s protected area strategy and seeking a balance
WHITEHORSE, YUKON–Seeking a balance between a healthy economy and protecting the wilderness for future generations will always stimulate a thoughtful and passionate debate among Canadians. There are unique land features in each province and territory that should be protected for the future. There are Yukoners, like other Canadians, who require good paying jobs to nurture […]
Federal leadership on alternate fuels: fighting poisonous air with hot air
PARLIAMENT HILL–North American deaths caused by air pollution each year now equal deaths resulting from breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. We Canadians, of course, are justifiably terrified of breast and prostate cancer. We don’t seem to be nearly as terrified of pollution. If we were, Canada’s politicians would be paying a lot more attention […]
Let’s stop the fiction, GDP is not enough
Canada’s decision-makers have no way of measuring whether we have adequate ecological resources to maintain our current level of economic activity and prosperity into the future. Because we haven’t kept track of our ecological resources, we don’t know if we are running down our stocks of this “natural capital” to the detriment of future generations’ […]
Parliamentary sovereignty
Regarding “Opposition attacks Paul Martin’s use of privilege,” (The Hill Times, May 19). The issue of the Parliamentary privileges of MPs is not an issue dealing with, as the Canadian Alliance’s John Reynolds would have it, Paul Martin’s campaign to become leader of the Liberal Party. Rather, Parliamentary privilege are the rights and immunities given […]
