Session: 38:2
Date: 26-Mar-2007

GOVERNMENT'S RECORD

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock): I rise today and recognize the Minister of the Environment as the second most recent addition to the Dalton McGuinty promise-breakers' club. As Ontarians know, this club is jam-packed with McGuinty members who refuse to keep their promises.

During the election in 2003, in bright-red, promise-breaking Liberal ink Dalton McGuinty and Minister Broten stated, "The air we breathe is killing us. We will make our air cleaner and close those coal generation plants."

Dalton McGuinty not only broke his misguided promise to close the coal generation plants once, he then broke it a second and third time. In January, the minister completely abandoned her promise of 60% waste diversion, saying that Dalton McGuinty won't succeed in keeping another one of his biggest campaign promises to divert 60% of garbage from landfills by the end of 2008.

Although the minister had already stated that she has a plan for climate change, the environment commissioner's fall report indicated that Dalton McGuinty has no formal plan for climate change. In Dalton McGuinty's budget, the Minister of the Environment was all but ignored. Where was the Minister of the Environment during the budget process?

Let's recognize in advance that Dalton McGuinty is clearly relying on federal dollars to completely fund his responsibility for climate change programs.

Old habits die hard for Dalton McGuinty, and he certainly knows how to surround himself with the same kinds of people. He has ensured that the Minister of the Environment has solidified her place in the Dalton McGuinty promise-breakers' club.