9 Mos In, Canada's Environment Minister Not Yet Briefed On Climate Change

[hatrack]

After nearly nine months in government, sources say Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has not received a departmental briefing on the science of climate change, leading her critics to question how seriously the Conservative government approaches the issue. Steven Guilbeault, a climate change campaigner for Greenpeace Canada, said normally one of the first things a new Environment minister would do is receive a number of briefings. "Once they've been appointed they would have briefings on various portfolios or various files within their portfolios, you know, clean air, toxics, nature, climate change. This is an absolute minimum," he said, adding that he suspects that the minister has chosen not to be briefed by her Department's scientists.

The Hill Times spoke with a well-connected source who asked not to be named and who supports the science of climate change, and as of the week of Oct. 9, the source said, Ms. Ambrose (Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Alta.) had not been briefed by the Environment Department's scientists specializing on climate change. "It's shocking, isn't it?" the source said. "I would find that astonishing," Matthew Bramley, climate change expert at the environmental pressure group the Pembina Institute, told The Hill Times. "There's the fact that the government itself has said this is an important issue, and given that the international scientific community has delivered numerous calls for urgent action."

Another environmental advocate, John Bennett, executive director of the Climate Change Action Network, said that conversations with "science people" in the Environment Department have also suggested that Ms. Ambrose had not been briefed. "That's our understanding. We can't verify it," he said.

Shannon Haggerty, a senior adviser in Ms. Ambrose's office, did not respond to a request to comment on whether Minister Ambrose had been briefed on the matter. Opposition critics have criticized Ms. Ambrose for what they say is a failure to fully understand the science of climate change, but her supporters say the minister knows the issues well.

EDIT

http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/october/16/lobbying/&c=1

[babylonsister]

1. She hasn't been briefed? She could always log into DU and hatrack's

posts if her gov't isn't cooperating.

[YankeyMCC]

5. Good point

Let's take up a collection to pay for hatrack's trip to Ottawa!

[Double T]

2. Is it possible that bushco science and bushco's position.........

on corporation before ANYTHING ELSE have infected the government of Canada?

[nam78_two]

3. Harper=Bush=Howard

on issues ranging from war to the environment....

Conservative "revolution" everywhere :puke: :puke:

k&r x(

[htuttle]

4. I guess she'll notice when all the roads up in the Yukon sink into the bog

But then, road maintenance would probably be somebody else's department.

:crazy:

[hatrack]

6. "No one could have anticipated roads turning to Jell-O."

"I believe the memo was entitled 'Massive Global Impacts Awaited As Climate Destabilizes.'"

:eyes: