CANADIAN VIEWS ON WSSD IMPLEMENTATION AND CSD

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