Remarks by The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety

February 23, 2007
Ottawa, ON

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your interest. Thank you for being here. Thank you also to our colleagues and friends, and to the ambassadors who have joined us from each country.

Last March in Cancun, the leaders of each of our countries got together and identified key areas in which they want to see improved security and prosperity. The goal of their meeting was plain, simple and clear. We want to see an improvement in prosperity and security and we also want to see a better quality of life for our citizens in each of our own sovereign nations.

They laid out five priorities, one of which you've heard already today, I believe, from the members of the North American Competitive Council. That is the first priority - to see how competitiveness could be improved across North America.

The second area is emergency management. Today, we agreed on a trilateral working group to continue to pull together some crucial elements that are involved in emergency response, and the resumption of activity should a cross-border emergency take place. We hope that that would not be the case. But we need to be prepared.

Third is the question of avian and pandemic influenza. The working group on this issue was instructed to come back by June 30, 2007 with finalized plans for cross-border activity, should there be a situation related to avian or pandemic influenza.

The fourth area has to do with energy security. And the fifth has to do with smart and secure borders.

I'm very pleased with the meetings that took place. I've had excellent bilateral meetings with my friend, Secretary Ramirez Acuna. We have agreed to put together a working group to look at areas of security related to our borders. I appreciate the relationship that we have begun and that we will continue.

In bilateral meetings with my counterpart Secretary Chertoff - though we weren't able to get in a run today - we did run over quite a few details. Our ongoing relationship on matters related to the border is going to lead to increased security and prosperity on issues unique to the Canada and U.S. border.

As I have said, the goals of our leaders are simple. We want to see increased security and prosperity, as well as an improved quality of life for our citizens.

I think we have come a long way in achieving those goals. I now ask Maxime Bernier, the Minister of Industry, to comment on the prosperity goal.

Thank you.