'New' Clean Air Act is bad--for Dion

John Ivison in Ottawa, National Post
Published: Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Those of a naive disposition might expect that a Liberal party now led by Mr. Dion would be pushing for early passage of a bill amended with even more aggressive emission targets. In reality, the meeting revealed the Liberal strategy is to delay any meaningful action until after the March budget, by which time we may be into another general election campaign.

It took two hours just to fix a timetable for the hearings; a small army of witnesses could turn the examination into a study in tedium.

"While we're trying to work with the other parties to get something done, the Liberals have shown clearly today that they're doing what they're best at, which is talk, delay and dither when it comes to the environment," NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen complained.