(Return tabled) Question No. 422 Ms. Kirsty Duncan: With respect to nutrition in child and adolescent populations in Canada: (a) does government policy include recognition and acceptance of the principle that Canada’s children and adolescents are entitled to nutritious food (i) regardless of where they live, (ii) regardless of their family income, (iii) particularly when economic forces undermine efforts by parents and caregivers to ensure healthy eating; (b) given that the 1992 World Declaration on Nutrition, to which Canada was a s ...[+++]ignatory, states that access to nutritionally adequate and safe food is a right of each individual, what specific actions have the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Health Canada undertaken for children and adolescents in order to fulfill this commitment; (c) what percentage of children and adolescents in Canada is food insecure, (i) do disparities exist, including, but not limited to, disability status, ethnicity, gender, geography, socio-economic status, (ii) if so, specify; (d) what percentage of children and adolescents lives below the poverty line, (i) do disparities exist, including, but not limited to, disability status, ethnicity, gender, geography, socio-economic status, (ii) if so, specify; (e) what percentage of children and adolescents has, as a result of living below the poverty line, (i) poor nutritional status, (ii) poor health outcomes due to their poor nutritional status; (f) what percentage of members of each of the following groups is food insecure, (i) child and adolescent newcomers, (ii) children and adolescents who live in poverty, (iii) children and adolescents who live in priority neighbourhoods, (iv) Aboriginal children and adolescents; (g) what percentage of children and adolescents (i) involuntarily misses meals, (ii) lacks healthy variety in its diet; (h) does the government have information, and, if so, what is that information, concerning (i) how (g)(i) and (g)(ii) impact the caloric a ...

Question No. 140 Ms. Kirsty Duncan: With respect to development of the oil sands, its impacts on the environment and surrounding communities, and the economic effects of these impacts: (a) what, if any, steps has the government taken to establish air emission limits or air quality standards to achieve the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guidelines to protect air quality and human health; (b) what, if any, steps has the government’s sector-by-sector approach taken to regulate carbon emissions in the oil sands to ensure the oil sands industry makes appropriate reductions in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to contribute to Canad ...[+++]a’s GHG emission reduction goal of 17% below the 2005 level; (c) what, if any, studies has the government undertaken to examine the effect of the oil sands expansion on (i) GHG emissions, (ii) Canada’s ability to meet its GHG emission reduction goals, (iii) Canada’s contribution to the goal of staying below a 2°C increase in global average surface temperature, relative to the pre-industrial level, as articulated at the G8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy and at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations through the Copenhagen Accord in December 2009 and the Cancun Agreements in December 2010, (iv) the full suite of sustainability criteria, including environmental, economic and social sustainability, and (v) what were the results of any studies identified in (c)(i), (c)(ii), (c)(iii), and (c)(iv); (d) what, if any, studies has the government undertaken to examine (i) the scope of oil sands expansion if the oil sands sector is not required to deliver its proportional share of GHG reductions, (ii) the impacts such a decision would have on other sectors’ allowable GHG emissions, (iii) whether other sectors of the Canadian economy would have to do more than their proportional share to reduce emissions, (iv) what were the results of any studies identified in (d)(i), (d)(ii), and (d)(iii); (e) what, if any, studies ...

(Return tabled) Question No. 9 Mr. Peter Stoffer: With regard to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board (VRAB), legislated by the Veterans Review and Appeal Board Act: (a) who are all permanent and temporary members of the Board, broken down by province and territory, appointed by the Governor in Council since 2006; (b) has the government considered disbanding the VRAB; (c) has the government considered modifying the VRAB; (d) has the government considered implementing a policy to ensure that VRAB appointees by the Governor in Council must have (i) military or RCMP experience, (ii) medical experience; (e) what were the total annual federal funds provided to the VRAB from 2006 to 2011 inclusively; (f) what is a breakdown of the annual spe ...[+++]nding of the VRAB, from 2006 to 2011 inclusively, as it relates to (i) program costs, (ii) administration costs, (iii) salary costs of the VRAB board members, (iv) travel costs for the VRAB board members, (v) VRAB staff costs, (vi) VRAB staff travel costs; (g) how many reports has the VRAB chairperson made to the Minister with respect to the use of resources allocated to the Board from 2006 to 2011 inclusively; (h) when was the last time the Department of Veterans Affairs completed an assurance audit of the VRAB and when is the department planning to conduct the next audit; (i) how often does the department conduct assurance audits of the VRAB; (j) has the department planned an extensive review of the administration of the VRAB; (k) does the Department of Veterans Affairs regularly analyze the reasons why pension decisions are overturned by the VRAB in favour of the client with regard to the interpretation of (i) legislation, (ii) medical issues, (iii) legal issues; (l) has the VRAB provided information to the department on how many pension decisions, made since the VRAB's inception, have been in favour of the veteran client using the benefit of the doubt clause (section 70); and (m) how many pension matters or cases has th ...

54. Regrets that, with only one year left on the timescale of the Lisbon strategy, clearly defined goals have not been met and progress in programme areas has been insufficient; takes the view that Member States’ efforts have been lacking in implementing measures to bring the goals of the Lisbon strategy closer; believes that the Lisbon Strategy must be seen as an important guideline for future-shaping policies, aimed at a strong, competitive and growth-fostering EU; considers, therefore, that it deserves to be taken more seriously by Member States and should not be seen merely as a set of distant goals, but as an action plan for the further development of Europe; proposes that further reflection on a 'Lisbon Plus-Agenda' (which must st ...[+++]art in 2010) should be based on the general architecture of the present Lisbon Strategy (competitiveness and greening of European industries, more and better jobs, social inclusion, sustainability), but stresses the need to present a more homogenous and mutually supportive approach capable of decisively enlarging the European Lisbon governance capacity; asks the Commission for a thorough evaluation of the past nine years of the Lisbon Strategy and of the achievement of and commitment to the goals of the Lisbon strategy by the Member States to be presented before the end of 2009; asks the Commission to analyse the usefulness of a post-Lisbon strategy with new aims and goals, and especially to assess the readiness of Member States to implement such a new programme, and its viability; stresses the need to refocus the IPGs against the background of the economic downturn and urges the Council to agree on short-term measures to safeguard the 2008 employment rate, to invest in the fight against climate change and to ensure sufficient incomes, especially with regard to the most vulnerable groups of society; expects the Commission to launch initiatives and present proposals with respect to these goals in good time for the forthcoming S ...

The ENP Action Plan outlines the steps to implement the recommendation agreed by Trade Ministers in Palermo in July 2003, as well as other measures including the need to strengthen cooperation with other agencies at borders, the provision of assistance on implementation of cumulation of origin, the need to strengthen administrative cooperation to combat fraud and the development of risk analysis.

Question No. 873 Ms. Kirsty Duncan: With respect to disaster risk reduction (DRR) and recovery: (a) what is the current value of the government’s infrastructure including, but not limited to, energy, social, tourism, and transportation infrastructure, and what are the government’s contingency liabilities; (b) what percentage of the national budget is devoted to DRR, (i) what stand alone DRR investments has the government made in each of its budgets since 2006, (ii) what percentage of each budget has been allocated to hazard proofing sectoral development investments and, if such allocations have been made, (iii) what amount has the government invested by sector, broken down by budget; (c) what monies have been provided for a national polic ...[+++]y and legal framework with decentralised responsibilities, (i) what monies are required, (ii) what are the operational requirements, (iii) what human resources are required; (d) what dedicated resources are available to implement DRR plans and activities, (i) what monies are required, (iii) what are the operational requirements, (iii) what human resources are required; (e) what monies have been allocated to the national multi-sectoral platform; (f) what are the existing resources in regards to systems that monitor, archive and disseminate data on key hazards and vulnerabilities, (i) what monies are required, (ii) what are the operational requirements, (iii) what human resources are required; (g) what would be required to put in place a national public alerting system that would warn Canadians of imminent or unfolding threats to life in place in terms of (i) financial resources, (ii) personnel resources; (h) what resources are allocated to national risk assessments, (i) what monies are required, (ii) what are the operational requirements, (iii) what human resources are required; (i) what resources are allocated to local risk assessments, (i) what monies are required, (ii) what are the operational requirements, (iii) what huma ...