Canada confirms that Brazil rejected its offer of aid to the Amazon

The Minister of Environment of Canada, Catherine McKenna, announced on Tuesday that Brazil refused the help her country offered to the Brazilian authorities to fight fires in the Amazon.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday offered to Brazil the shipment of tankers and 15 million Canadian dollars (11.25 million US dollars) to fight the fires of the Amazon.

McKenna also said that the Canadian government does not plan to freeze negotiations with Mercosur, the South American trade bloc of which Brazil is a part, for the signing of a free trade agreement with Canada.

Canada and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) launched negotiations last March to sign a free trade agreement.

The Canadian minister said during a press conference in Toronto that the best option is to link the economy and the environment and that trade agreements incorporate strong safeguards on environmental issues.

"I think we should always approach the environment and the economy together. The trade agreements that we have negotiated, and in which I have been directly involved, have strong environmental protections," McKenna said.

"(The treaty with) Mercosur will have the best environmental protections of any commercial agreement," he added.
McKenna insisted that the freezing of negotiations with Mercosur, as requested by the leader of the Social Democratic New Democratic Party (NPD), Jagmeet Singh, is not the solution.

Singh said in a statement that "again, Justin Trudeau is putting the interests of opulent corporations before the fight against climate change, by continuing free trade negotiations with President (Jair) Bolsonaro."

McKenna said "there is a real opportunity that the importance of reforestation will be discussed in the trade agreement" and said he believes that this is the approach "that Canadians expect, demonstrating that the economy and the environment are united."

Regarding the situation in the Amazon, McKenna said it is not just a problem for Brazil and its neighboring countries, and that if Brasilia rejects Canadian aid, Ottawa will work with other nations.

"The Amazon is literally on fire. It is a major concern because deforestation, fires, make the Amazon can not store carbon. And that accelerates climate change," he explained.

"We have offered financial and fire fighting help. We have excellent fire teams and unfortunately it seems that Brazil has not accepted the help," he continued.

"But there are other countries that are involved and we are currently providing an air dispersion model to the Government of Argentina. We hope we can work with the other partners," McKenna said.