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House Hansard - 170

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 21, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 170 - Mar/21/23
Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)
  • Mar/21/23 12:25:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is a rare opportunity in this place to bring into sharp focus one reason the Government of Canada has consistently failed, regardless of who is in the PMO, to meet climate targets. The reason is directly related to the debate today, and it is trade rules. The World Trade Organization interceded. We used trade sanctions that made the ozone protocol, the Montreal Protocol of 1987, work spectacularly well. In 1997, we negotiated Kyoto, and the difference was the interference by the World Trade Organization and trade ministers saying to environment ministers that they were not allowed to use enforcement mechanisms that work because the World Trade Organization and the trade ministers did not like that. It was not a ruling, but I put to the House that we need to re-examine the ways in which the World Trade Organization has undercut the work of the Paris Agreement and, for that matter, the more recent work at COP15 in Montreal. Trade rules must not undermine global survival, any more than they must not be used to continually support forced labour and children's labour. We need to examine the trade rules and make them work for survival.
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