From: DCUUNIT@EC.GC.CA
Subject: On behalf of David Anderson
Date: June 9, 2000 11:46:48 AM CDT
To: k.bell@ru.ac.za

[[Minister's letter sent to KNIB June 09 2000, in e-mail as attached file: "176181.doc". Attached file's contents below. I later discovered that this reply went through COSEWIC before sending to me! ... yet this is not made apparent by the sender. What point is there in complaining to Government about Agency X if the response goes through Agency X? It means that the handling of the complaint was insincere. That's shown in any case by the insubstantive reply. Is this what one should expect from a man who once said his approach was "conservation, conservation, conservation"? Conservation of what? -- KNIB]]

Dr. K.N.I. Bell
k.bell@ru.ac.za

Dear Dr. Bell:

The Prime Minister’s Office has recently forwarded to me a copy of your e-mail message of April 28 concerning the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).

As you may be aware, COSEWIC will be established as a legal entity with the proclamation of the proposed Species at Risk Act, which I tabled on April 11. At present, the Committee is in a transition phase and many of its procedures and modes of operation are changing, with the intention of making the process more open and transparent.

Departmental officials are aware of your comments and they will be taken into consideration as appropriate during this transition period. Your interest in COSEWIC is appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by David Anderson, P.C., M.P.