Nova Scotians Celebrate Environment Week

Environment Week, June 5 to 11, is a great time for Nova Scotians to celebrate successes and renew their commitment to keeping the province clean and beautiful.

"We've made tremendous progress with cleaner water, cleaner air and less waste, and that's reason to celebrate," said Environment and Labour Minister Kerry Morash, who kicked off the week with students at South Queens Junior High today, June 6. "Nova Scotians are truly committed to continuously improving our care for our beautiful natural environment."

In the past year, Nova Scotia has:

• adopted new air quality regulations that will cut sulphur dioxide emissions in half by 2010
• designated more than 10,000 hectares as new wilderness areas and nature reserves
• passed legislation to make it easier to designate more nature reserves
• consulted with Nova Scotians on draft regulations to reduce electronic waste
• completed implementation of the provincial drinking water strategy.

"These achievements were commitments in our green plan, Towards A Sustainable Environment," said Mr. Morash. "We accomplished them with our partners and, together, we'll continue to do more."

The theme of Environment Week 2005 is: taking action for the environment. The week's celebrations include Clean Air Day on Wednesday, June 8.

For more information on keeping Nova Scotia's environment clean, see the website at www.gov.ns.ca/enla/envirowk .