David Anderson
Minister of the Environment speaking in Japan April 9th 2000

Sustainable development and Rio+10

[Exerpt]

"The Government of Canada is determined to ensure that innovative sustainable environment practices and technologies will increasingly be part of our country's strength in the 21st century.

The Government of Canada is determined to ensure that innovative sustainable environment practices and technologies will increasingly be part of our country's strength in the 21st century.

However, it is becoming clear that we need a new architecture of environmental management if we are to take sustainable development to the next level. Around the world, countries are realizing the need to reconcile economic and environmental interests and to develop new indicators for measuring economic, environmental and social progress. We need to pursue not merely economic growth, but more sustainable and efficient growth.

To develop this new framework, we need to define concrete goals and clear indicators that will measure environmental performance as thoroughly as we chart economic indicators. The Gross Domestic Product can be a very misleading statistic. It assigns no value to factors that influence our quality of life, such as clean air and water, safe communities or personal health status.

As we develop these new indicators, we need to engage citizens at all levels. We need to provide credible information that empowers individuals to make well-informed decisions that will promote the health of their families, their communities and their environments

In Canada and globally, the public expects a strong environmental ethic -- and action -- from governments and businesses alike. I intend to work with my international colleagues and with provinces, municipalities, businesses and citizens groups to encourage and contribute to this new architecture."