NRCan Bells Corners Complex, Ottawa, Ontario
January 17, 2007

Thank you.

I'm very pleased to be with you this morning.  Canadians see the environment as a huge priority.  They want and they expect their government to take real action-- real action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, real action on reducing pollution and real action on efforts to make our air cleaner.

The scientific evidence is overwhelming and conclusive. It's time for the world, and more importantly, it's time for Canada, to take real action.

This will require a real change in our behaviour as individual Canadians. It will also require real investments from Canada's government -- real investments like the ones my colleague Gary Lunn just made. Real solutions, like the $230 million that's been announced today. 

Clean energy ties itself directly to our environment. The funding announced today will have a very real and very positive ecological impact on our environment.

For instance, this investment in science and technology will go towards finding new ways to protect the atmosphere from waste gases.

It will go towards protecting and producing fuel technology to provide emergency back-up power instead of using convention diesel generators.

It will go towards developing an advanced clean coal technology that will enable industry to reduce toxic emissions.

And, it will go towards studying ways in which to build solar heated homes and communities.

The environmental impacts of these energy announcements will have far reaching benefits. 

Canada also needs tough, new enforceable regulations to reduce not just greenhouse gas emissions, but also to reduce air pollutants in our environment. These are actions that we will be beefing up in the days and weeks ahead. 

Today's announcements are very important for the future of Canada's environment, which is, of course, a high priority for our government. We intend to work hard on the climate change issue and we intend to make real progress in improving our country's air quality. I'm pleased to work with my colleagues, Gary Lunn and Pierre Poilièvre, to make that happen.

Thank you.