At the first Earth Summit, the goal was decided that by 1996 each government that signed the agreemenet to make changes in their environments would have done a majority of the work and specifically made the contacts with communities. In other words, everything should have been well under way.

In Canada so far, seven programs have been started, inspired by the initiatives in Local Agenda 21.

Mark Fisher is a young person workng with the Canadian Environmental Network (CEN). He is worried that the Canadian government works through a "corporate agenda" when it comes to the environment. Making money and having big companies happy is of more importance.

Environmental groups often don't have the financial support of big business and don't have the funding to get their views heard by a lot of people. "Environmental interest groups can't pay for media, they can't pay for environmental assessment," said Fischer. So in this way, Fisher believes they can't reach the people. Fisher believes that to fund the environmental projects, the companies that exploit the environment need to be taxed and punished.

Victoria Gagnon, Executive Director of the Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement agrees, "We still need to develop more policies that would encourage companies to develop solutions themselves. For example, [Although] strenghthening environmental technology is a major accomplishment, when one factory solves its problem, it's a solution for one factory and it's created a competitive advantage for them. But then because of this, they resist sharing that knoweldge with their competitors. If there were benefits for companies to share their solutions, then stuff might actually get done."

Judy Walker, from Toronto, is the Director of Membership and Commission Services of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. She is disillusioned with the actions taken especially with air pollution. "Instead of reducing emmissions, we have in fact increased those emmissions. However, certain municipalities have made progress, for example, in Toronto, where the Toronto Accord was first established for action at the local level, they have recently monitored its progress and the city of Toronto has in fact reduced emmissions by about 3 per cent from 1990 levels. If this could be achieved across Canada, it would help the government of Canada to meet its objectives."

Internationally, Canada is leading the way. "Canada this year is hosting the APEC ministerial meetings...the number one action item that Canada proposed to APEC is that these economies double the number of local communities implementing Agenda 21 planning...all 18 economies agreed to that ,but there still needs to be a mechanism to implement that."

Francois Blain of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association believes the forestry industry in some aspects provides a prime example of a Canadian success story. "We are certainly holding our own in terms of performance on the environmental side...we have a record for Canada of 4.5 million tons of recycled paper last year, which is 45 per centof all new paper produced. We have recently launched a recycling guide which will help suppliers of recycled stock to meet with those interested in purchasing that stock. Many companies are implementing a biodiversity programme and are moving towards meeting the [proposed] convention [on Forestry]."

Fiona Heald from the Canadian Youth Round table, serves as the youth NGO representative in the Canadian delegation. Heald is positive about Canada's capacity as a sustainable developer, moving into the Earth + 5 talks. "In terms of youth involvement, I think they have done quite well. The [government] has formed the National Youth Round table, I don't know any other nation that has done that. The round table is going to be advising the minister directly. As well, we're going to be advising senior officials." As for influence on the Earth + 5 talks, Heald is confident that the youth will have important influence, and further, she has been inspired by the preparatory process. "We're going to be having a real impact on decisions. We're going to bring what we hear in our areas to the table (and) coming to consensus--if fourteen people as different as us can come to concensus, there is hope."