Statement made on 03 March 2011 by Senator Tommy Banks (retired)
Hon. Tommy Banks:
Honourable senators, Environment Canada programs and climate change initiatives, according to numbers we have seen, will decline by nearly 60 per cent: a reduction in that spending of about $150 million. Those reductions are from programs that, according to the department's own words:
. . . enhance Canada's visibility as an international leader in clean energy technology.
At least some of those programs had to do with getting our own federal government house in order with respect to our direct responsibilities of reducing our own operating environmental footprint.
How can we admonish, urge, cajole and sometimes penalize Canadians and Canadian enterprises about their effect on the environment? How can we claim to be world leaders in clean energy if we are not prepared to take care of our own backyard, our own direct responsibilities? How can we reconcile those things?
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