US embassy cable - 03OTTAWA588

UNCLAS OTTAWA 000588 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: SENV, ECON, EAID, AORC, CA, UN 
SUBJECT: CANADIAN VIEWS ON WSSD IMPLEMENTATION AND CSD 
REFORM 
 
REF: STATE 41673 
 
1. As requested in reftel, EST Counselor provided U.S. 
discussion papers, talking points and Q and A paper to the 
Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International 
Trade (DFAIT) and to the GOC coordinating committee on WSSD 
implementation.  Returning from an extended absence, our 
main interlocutor in the GOC, Gary Pringle (DFAIT), told EST 
Counselor that Canada is generally supportive of the 
approach to CSD reform being proposed by the U.S.  He found 
the Q and A paper particularly helpful in presenting the 
case for some of the reform measures being proposed. 
However, he indicated that the GOC is now focused on the CSD 
Secretariat's paper of February 14 and would be interested 
 
SIPDIS 
in USG comments on that paper. 
 
2. Pringle said the GOC would like to see future sessions of 
the CSD address topics on the basis of "WEHAB Plus," which 
he described as perhaps two topics pre-selected from the 
WEHAB agenda and one topic selected from among other 
competing areas of interest to CSD participants.  He noted 
in particular that Canada thought the topics of "sustainable 
cities" and "information technology" should be on future CSD 
agendas for consideration, even though they were not 
contained in the WEHAB formulation. 
 
3. Furthermore, Canada plans to propose that a review be 
built into the revised CSD agenda after the first cycle (two 
years).  This would allow participants to evaluate the 
effectiveness of changes adopted and to make whatever 
adjustments, large or small, may be called for. 
Cellucci