Centre for Plant Health Saved!

I received news on October 30th from Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz that the Centre for Plant Health on the Saanich Peninsula will remain open. Needless to say, I am thrilled (and relieved!) with this decision. I am grateful to Minister Ritz for listening to our concerns and for re-thinking the earlier decision to move its ...

Elizabeth May to Speak to Budget Omnibus Bill C-45, Table Amendments

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May will table dozens of substantive policy amendments to Budget Omnibus Bill C-45 when it returns to the House of Commons for Report Stage on Thursday, November 29, 2012. With some to be moved this Thursday and the remainder the following Tuesday during C-45′s last day of debate at Report Stage, ...

Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agrifood (AGRI)

This week the committee continued its study of Bill S-11, known shorthand as the “Safe Foods for Canadians Act”. Witnesses on October 30th came from the Canadian Meat Council, the Retail Council of Canada, the Dairy Farmers of Canada, and the Canadian Association of Regulated Importers. Each made comments on their impressions of S-11 and ...

May Celebrates Decision to Keep Plant Health Centre Open

Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, is today celebrating the Conservatives’ reversal of their decision to close the Centre for Plant Health on the Saanich Peninsula. “I am grateful to Minister Ritz for listening to our concerns and for re-thinking the earlier decision to move its quarantine ...

Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food (AGRI)

This week the committee finished its study of the supply chain of red meat products, and undertook a study of Bill S-11, the “Safe Foods for Canadians Act”. The October 23rd meeting was undertaken ‘in camera’, but the October 25th meeting saw the Committee meet publicly for the first time since the XL Foods beef ...

Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food (AGRI)

This week the committee met in camera to resume its studies of the food supply chain (overview) and the animal products supply chain (red meat). The Minutes for the meetings can be found here and here. Print this page...

Emergency Debate – Food Safety

Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, I want to take this debate to a different level. I want to quote from the Weatherill report. In addition to the fact that we have lost food inspectors and we are concerned about food safety, we may not be addressing the big picture. The Weatherill report reads: The risks of ...

Joint Statement on Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

As the Green parliamentary political parties of three nations whose governments are currently in the process of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), we are issuing this joint statement to express our serious concern at the fundamentally undemocratic and non-transparent nature of this agreement.  Following the leaking of the draft investment chapter of the TPPA ...

Oshawa Ethanol Plant More Greed Than Green?

The Harper Conservatives’ latest move to support the building of a $200-million ethanol processing plant on Oshawa’s valuable waterfront is tainted in several ways important to Canadians.  The corn-based biofuel ethanol has long been considered a questionable alternative to oil and gas; there has been no valid environmental assessment, even though it is close to sensitive ...

Canada still has no plan to address climate change

There is no shortage of compelling issues to discuss in a Hill Times Environmental Policy briefing.  Even listing, without describing, the catalogue of assaults on environmental law and policy by the prime minister in the last 12 months is enough to occupy the whole issue. Canada undermined global climate negotiations in Durban in December, negotiated ...