Chris Windeyer
Northern News Services
Monday, February 5, 2007

OTTAWA - Climate change dominated the political street fight that is Parliament's question period last week and Nunavut's MP was in the middle of the fray.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, along with Liberal leader Stephane Dion and Ontario MP Michael Ignatieff attacked the Conservative record on climate change Wednesday, with the government firing back that the Liberals did nothing on the file while in power. But Karetak-Lindell said the Conservatives have slashed Liberal-initiated environmental programs and reintroduced them as their own.

She cited the EnerGUIDE program and One-Tonne Challenge, programs that helped Canadians monitor their energy consumption as examples.

Those programs "brought so much awareness to the public about what we need to do," Karetak-Lindell said. "Awareness is something you can't measure."

Nunavut homeowners especially benefitted from those programs, which provided funds to help make their homes more energy efficient, she said.

"(These are) things a lot of homeowners can't afford to do unless there is a program that will help them," she said.

The Conservatives have countered with the ecoENERGY program that has pledged $300 million for energy-efficient retrofitting for homes and businesses.

The environment is expected to dominate this session of Parliament, with the Conservatives' Clean Air Act working its way through Parliament. Environmentalists panned the bill and Karetak-Lindell said pollution reduction could be achieved through changes to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act that was passed while the Liberals were in power.

Karetak-Lindell also addressed the topic of her own political future, saying she doesn't want to step down as MP until the next election is called.

"I don't want to resign before an election because that puts Nunavut in a situation of being without a representative," she said. The government has six months to call a byelection when an MP quits.

The federal budget is expected in March, and the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois had made rumblings about defeating the government on the vote and forcing new elections. But defections and resignations in the Liberal fold mean the New Democratic Party holds the balance of power in Parliament.