David Suzuki says newly-minted Environment Minister John Baird has gotten off to a good start, simply because he acknowledges global warming is a reality that has to be dealt with.
Suzuki -- the advocate, author and journalist who has become the face of the environmental movement in Canada -- appeared on CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
"Mr. Baird called me within two hours after he was appointed. When I called him back, he said completely out of the blue, 'David, I want you to understand, I'm not a flat Earther'," Suzuki said.
"He said I believe the information scientists are accumulating about global warming. I'm not denying its occurrence. Well to me that was a huge step up from what the previous minister had really been saying. So that was a very good start."
Tthe two also met in B.C. while Baird was there to tour extensive storm damage in Stanley Park.
However, Suzuki pointed out that former environment minister Rona Ambrose also approached him shortly after her appointment.
Ambrose said all the right things and seemed to have the best intentions, but failed to deliver substantive policies to improve the state of the environment, he said.
The onus is on Baird to get things done and set himself apart, Suzuki said.
"I think we've got to wait and see now that the photo op is done. Now let's see what can be actually delivered in terms of very hard targets and timelines to actually begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions deeply."
The Conservative government has said that it can't meet emissions reductions targets set by the former Liberal government under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change.
Years of Liberal inaction are the reason, the government claims.
Suzuki said he agrees that the Liberals failed to deliver meaningful policies to clean up the environment. But he said the issue is too important to play politics with.
He said he reminded Baird that Kyoto was ratified by former prime minister Jean Chretien in 2002, meaning the nation is bound to try and meet the targets. To give up, he said, would be a "dereliction of duties."
"He didn't ratify that as a Liberal, he ratified that as a prime minister of Canada. Canada ratified that treaty, " he said.
"We're now bound by that as an international agreement. And I think it's not what Canadians want to do to say well, these international agreements, we can't meet them anyway we're not going to do anything. We've got a responsibility to try."
Suzuki said Baird wouldn't give him a straight answer when he asked him about whether Harper's agrees that global warming is taking place.
I met Mr. Harper before he was even a leader of the party. I happened to run into him while he was being interviewed in the Parliament Buildings," Suzuki said.
"At that time he was denying global warming was an issue, and he was saying then, this is years and years ago, there's no way that we can meet a target like Kyoto. It's too expensive. Well it's a hell of a lot more expensive now."
