The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Ottawa - Canadians were second only to Americans in their consumption of water in 1999, Statistics Canada reports. In 1999, each Canadian on average used 1,471 cubic metres of water, where each American used 1,870 cubic metres. "Since 1850, some 1,300 glaciers have lost between 25 per cent and 75 per cent of their mass, with most of this reduction occurring in the last 50 years. Along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, glacier cover is now close to its lowest level in 10,000 years." Ottawa - Canada must press ahead with its Kyoto commitments regardless of whether the climate-change treaty is formally ratified, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin agreed Tuesday. They were commenting on news reports suggesting Russia has decided against ratifying the treaty, which would prevent it from taking legal effect. Ottawa - Years of penny-pinching have left the Canadian Forces on the brink of collapse and it could take an entire generation to recover, a bleak Queen's University study warns. The document tells the incoming Paul Martin government that it is about to walk into a disaster, with a military that can't be used because of shortages of people and equipment. "The problem will rapidly disarm foreign policy as Canada repeatedly backs away from international commitments because it lacks adequate military forces," said the report.
