The record, 24 mai 1990, Cahier A

THURSDAY M NK'h DAY ANNKTTH PLOL RDt SHhRBROOKK HLtMhNTARY St'HCMM- ¦rjHa 40 cents PM: May not back stand on emissions By Dennis Bueckert OTTAWA (CPI — Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is distancing himself from the last big environmental-related promise made by former environment minister Lucien Bouchard.Mulroney told the Commons on Wednesday he has not decided whether to back Bouchard’s commitment last week in Bergen, Norway, that Canada’s carbon dioxide emissions will be no higher than current levels in the year 2000.Bouchard made the promise at a United Nations environmental conference, producing consterna- tion among oil industry officials and pleasing some environmentalists.“I would want to examine with great care all communications from Europe of the previous minister of the environment,” said Mulroney said in response to a question from Liberal environment critic Charles Caccia.“Obviously 1 would want to examine with care the wording, the specific wording, of any documents that emanated from that conference,” he added.However.Bouchard’s commitment is not contained in the confe- rence declaration.He made the statement verbally, going beyond the common position that 34 participating countries could agree on The conference declaration says vaguely that signing countries will stabilize carbon dioxide emissions without specifying at what level or by when.Similar statements have been made before.DISTANCING HIMSELF “There’s no question that the prime minister is distancing himself and his government from Mr.Bouchard’s statements of last Wednesday." said NDP environment critic Jim Fulton.“The prime minister indicated he wanted to look at the documents from the conference, not at the tape recorded statement of the minister of the environment." Carbon dioxide traps heat from the sun.and scientists say its buildup in the atmosphere could pro duce an unprecedented global war ming.The gas is released through the burning of oil.coal and gas.Kai Millyard.policy director of Friends of the Earth, said he considered the statement on carbon dioxide the most important commitment made by Bouchard as environment minister.Bouchard considered global warming the most serious environ mental problem facing the planet, and at one point compared its consequences to those of nuclear war.Last week there was a storm in the Commons over a leaked U S.State Department memo that said Canada would support the U S.go-slow position on carbon dioxide at the Norway conference.The memo predicted a number of European countries would press for a precise target on curbing emissions, but the United States would block that action with help from Canada and the Soviet Union In fact, that is what happened Bouchard: Quebec needs political clout Parc Safari presents.MONTREAL (CPi — One nationalist businessman called it the most beautiful speech he’s heard in a decade.Lucien Bouchard, free from the responsibilities of the federal cabinet, delivered Wednesday a passionate rallying cry for Quebec unity in redefining its relationship with Canada.Stabbing the air with his arms and his voicing rising with emotion, Bouchard riveted 650 business people saying all sectors of Quebec society including the Liberal party and Parti Québécois must “come to a grand consensus” for the future.“I don’t reject sovereignty-association” because Quebec needs the political power to negotiate a new deal with Canada as an equal instead of asking for concessions from its knees, the former environment minister said “René Lévesque had it right,” he said.“Lévesque understood that to negotiate the necessary arrangement with Ottawa we have to give ourselves the political power — the real power.” Quebec was weakened by division after the 1980 sovereignty-association referendum and is once again “dying of ambiguity” and division in the current constitutional debate.Bouchard quit the cabinet and the Conservative party on Monday to protest a move to negotiate a companion agreement to the Meech Lake accord aimed at getting three provinces withholding support for the deal to ratify it.WEAKEN GAINS Bouchard said the report of special Commons committee, which would be used as a basis for negotiating a companion agreement, would fundamentally weaken gains made by Quebec.He said Wednesday that the Meech Lake accord was the ultimate symbol of compromise and openness by Quebec after its humiliation when the 1982 Constitution was signed without the province’s participation.“The negotiation was done.The compromises were made,” he said.“Now the partners have torn up their signatures and they have See BOUCHARD page 2.PQ ready to greet Bouchard By Daniel Sanger QUEBEC (CP) — Parti Québécois Leader Jacques Parizeau says he is not fearing for his job now that Lucien Bouchard is a free agent.Speculation has been rife that Bouchard, a former PQ member, had his eyes on the party leadership when he resigned dramatically from the federal cabinet while reaffirming his commitment to a sovereign Quebec.One senior Quebec cabinet minister, speaking off the record, said it was a moot point whether that was Bouchard’s game plan.But on Wednesday Parizeau said he isn’t worrying.“Good Heavens, no,” he said when asked if he was looking over his shoulder these days at Bouchard as a possible replacement.“If he decides to join the party we will receive him with open arms.” Is the PQ big enough for both Parizeau and Bouchard?“There is in politics not the slightest risk of putting together a group of very strong men,” Parizeau replied.See PQ page 2.J Bourassa: Deadlock Barbie, a $5000 Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, doesn’t mind snuggling up to Collette Lussier.Collette doesn ’t seem to mind either.The midget goat kids are just as content in the arms of Parc Safari’s Marie Papillon.They were at The Record Wednesday to talk about the Hemmingford game park’s season.Read about it Friday in Townships Week.meeting is not a trap jyfuij-oneyj y[\Is cabinet vacancy QUEBEC (CP) — Premier Robert Bourassa disagrees with several prominent Quebecers that he’d be stumbling into a trap by accepting an invitation to attend a first ministers' conference to break the Meech Lake deadlock.Bourassa still insists Quebec cannot accept any changes to the accord, but in the same breath says he’s willing to attend a federal-provincial meeting which Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said Wednesday is still a possibility.Bourassa might believe he’s in a no-lose situation if he goes.The confident-sounding premier said Tuesday a first ministers’ conference would be a good forum for him to reaffirm Quebec’s constitutional views to English Canada — even though they have not changed since 1987.“Absentees are always wrong I don’t believe a policy of empty chairs would be appropriate in the circumstances,” he told a crush of reporters before his Tuesday night meeting with Lowell Murray, Ottawa’s minister responsible for federal-provincial relations.FACE PREMIERS He also told the legislature he’s “not afraid” of going head-to-head with his counterparts at a first ministers’ conference, partly because “I’m no amateur" in such meetings.But such critics as former Conservative MP Lucien Bouchard — who has quit the federal cabinet to protest any changes to Meech Lake — and Parti Québécois Leader Jacques Parizeau have warned Bourassa would be vulnerable to a concerted attack from other provinces and Mulroney.CP news analysis By Donald McKenzie They wonder why Bourassa would go when he has made it abundantly clear that Quebec will accept no changes to the Meech Lake accord, which is aimed at making the province a willing partner in the Constitution.But Parizeau thinks he knows why.“They (the premiers) all need a conference to say.‘It’s not my fault Canada is breaking up’,” Parizeau told reporters outside the legislature Wednesday.If a conference leads to ratification of Meech Lake, as it stands now.Bourassa can return home and proclaim that Quebec's steadfastness paid off But if the meeting fails to end the See BOURASSA page 2.OTTAWA (CP) — Industry Minister Benoit Bouchard, a strong Quebec nationalist, will take over from his close friend Lucien Bouchard as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s Quebec lieutenant.Mulroney announced Benoit Bouchard’s appointment Wednesday, two days after the resignation of Lucien Bouchard from the Quebec cabinet and caucus.The prime minister also said Treasury Board President Robert de Cotret would become acting environment minister and Communication Minister Marcel Masse would be minister responsible for the francophonie — the French- language equivalent of the Commonwealth.Benoit Bouchard — no relation to Lucien — becomes Mulroney’s eyes and ears in Quebec at a time when the Quebec caucus is under immense strain due to the Meech Lake constitutional impasse.He was one of the former environment minister’s closest associates in cabinet, and his support for Quebec’s claims as a distinct society is equally fervent He has not stated whether he will stay in the government if the Meech Lake accord should be defeated and has expressed his respect for the decision taken by Lu- St-Amable: Townspeople not at risk ST-AMABLE (CP) — The site of last week's tire fire near here is badly contaminated with toxic chemicals but townspeople are at little risk, an Environment Quebec report released Wednesday said.Heavy metals such as cadium and chrome were found in the water and in the soil near the tire dump, where 3.5 million tires burned for almost four days last week.But pollution in the water, air, and soil away from the immediate area of the dump is negligible, not surpassing levels that are registered in urban areas on hot summer days, the report said.The fire produced 1.5 tonnes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — equal to what is released daily in Montreal — which rapidly dispersed into the atmos- phere.Hydrocarbons are the compounds responsible for human cancers caused by soot, tars and oils — and some of the lung cancers resulting from cigarette smoke.Toxicity tests to determine the level of dioxins produced by the fire will continue over several months.Jacques Doyon.the mayor of St-Amable.said he is satisfied by the report Doyon promised that after the site is completely clean up there would be no more tires brought there.A crew is still pumping contaminated water from the site.To date 8(K).(MK) litres of polluted water have been pumped out._______________________ Mav 24.1990 fV.VcM'.' 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