Howard Epstein on Interprovincial Labour Mobility

Excerpt from Hansard: July 11, 2006
The honourable member for Halifax Chebucto

Subject: Environmental Targets

MR. HOWARD EPSTEIN: Mr. Speaker, my question is also for the Minister of Environment and Labour. The [Minister of Environment and Labour’s] colleague, the Minister of Energy, said last week this government would wait and see how the federal Conservatives tackle the issue of greenhouse gases, but this House knows that Quebec and Manitoba have both announced, as a matter of policy and regardless of how much the Tory federal government is backing away from the Kyoto Accord, that they will implement Kyoto. Why will the minister not announce the same target for Nova Scotia? … I would like to point out that under the Constitution Act, legal jurisdiction over the environment is split between the federal and provincial governments. There is nothing in law to prevent the Province of Nova Scotia from acting, and we have coal-fired power plants here. We have a cement plant, we have hundreds of thousands of cars and they all emit greenhouse gases. The main one is CO₂, this problem is pressing, but Nova Scotia has no laws at all to control the emission of CO₂. I’m asking the minister, what is he waiting for? … The minister’s department needs to re-evaluate its priorities. For a decade, it has concentrated on minor environmental problems, paying little heed to the major issues. Air is a life-support system. Clean air is central to our survival and health. I’m asking if the minister thinks that greenhouse gas emissions are primarily a federal matter, will he stand here today and condemn the federal government for abandoning Kyoto?

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