Session: 38:2
Date: 16-Apr-2007

Environmental Protection

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock): I'm pleased to respond to the Minister of the Environment. We fully support the protection of green spaces so that our children and our grandchildren in urban areas have access to green spaces to enjoy the outdoors and breathe the clean air. But I would also like to note that in the minister's statement she attempted to use "Minister Caplan" and "leadership" in the same sentence, and I think we all know how ridiculous that sounds over here.

The previous PC government established some highly successful and revered policies such as the Living Legacy and the Lands for Life program as well as the Oak Ridges moraine. Extending and protecting Ontario's green spaces by this government reflects no real leadership; it's just finishing up some of the hard work that came before them, which Dalton McGuinty always loves to take credit for.

But the truth of the matter is that this Liberal government under Dalton McGuinty has failed Ontarians when it does come to the environment. It was nearly five years ago when Dalton McGuinty stood on stage after stage and made a bunch of promises to close coal plants with absolutely no plan on how to get there. The Liberals have shown their dedication to something, and that something is nothing more than environmental rhetoric. In fact, keeping up the coal-closing charade just delayed measures that could have made the environment cleaner and Ontarians healthier. Promises broken, promises re-broken and re-broken. Those plants are still spewing out the emissions that Dalton McGuinty said he would stop. Although I do believe someone over there is reading the polls, because in the last three weeks we've seen a small handful of announcements with boatloads of that all-too-familiar Liberal rhetoric on green policies.

The McGuinty solution to broken promises is to delay and defer deadlines-weak leadership. So after four years of delaying and breaking almost every election promise he made on the environment, Dalton McGuinty announces that he is going to come out with yet another plan, and this time the plan is on climate change, thanks to the funding by the federal government.

Our leader, John Tory, today showed real leadership when it comes to the environment. I was pleased to join in when he announced setting ambitious and measurable targets that a PC government would set for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Ontario. He laid out a concrete plan detailing how he would show real leadership of a government that would play its part in helping to meet that goal.

Ontarians do their best work when they have a competent, accountable leadership with real plans and a real desire to be measured on real results. That's the difference between John Tory as opposed to Dalton McGuinty's lack of leadership, his "Say anything to get elected" and Dalton McGuinty's extreme lack of accountability. We can't believe them to get it right.