
Speaking at the Kyoto NOW! rally at Dundas Square
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Stephen Harper’s weak stand on environment
tarnishes Canada’s international reputation
By Maria Minna, MP
Canada’s reputation took quite a beating from the international community at the 2009 UN Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December - and rightly so.
Canada was once a respected world leader in the fight against climate change. The previous Liberal government’s 2005 Budget was heralded as the “greenest in Canadian history” by the Sierra Club.
The former Liberal government also ratified and implemented the Kyoto Protocol and brought in Project Green in 2005 which allocated more than $10 billion to clean our air, land and water, preserve our natural environment and address climate change.
Because Stephen Harper has no commitment to dealing effectively with climate change, one of the first things he did on taking office in 2006 was to cancel Project Green. The Pembina Institute has declared that Project Green was more than six times more effective than anything the Conservative government has offered since that time. [Read more]