DION PITCHES CLIMATE, ADDICTIONS

VICTORIA - Federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion says he would welcome
an election decided on climate change policy.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Victoria last week to announce
funding for alternative energy projects. Dion made his own trip to
B.C. this week to attend a fundraiser and promote his environment plans.

Dion challenged Harper to put affordable limits on industrial
emissions of greenhouse gases and immediately introduce a carbon
market that would allow companies to trade emission credits.

Speaking to reporters at the Empress Hotel Thursday, Dion said
Harper's economic update last November made no mention of the
environment or climate change.

"It's not a matter of conviction for him, it's a matter of surviving
for his minority government," Dion said. "And he decided to recreate
some of the programs that he killed, shamefully, last year. Except
that he's bringing them back in a weaker way than what we were doing,
and he should do the opposite. We need to do much more than what we
were doing as a government."

Dion also identified housing and addiction treatment as priorities for
his party. He said Vancouver's supervised injection site is proving to
be successful and he would look favourably on establishing more of
them in places that want them, including Victoria.

"I don't understand why the prime minister decided to postpone the
funding for that," Dion said. "All the reports we have received are
positive, the danger for people to be killed with overdose decreased,
more people are asking for help than before, so it's positive."

Dion was accompanied by Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Keith Martin, who
also advocated increased services for drug addicts.

"We have to have a harm reduction strategy that includes safe
injection sites, that includes psychiatric treatment, that includes
detox, that includes dealing with the people from the time they enter
detox to the time they leave it," Martin said.

Dion met with Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe, promising to be a strong
partner in the city's effort to construct secondary sewage treatment
if he is elected prime minister.