Federal environment minister says Alberta and Ottawa can come to terms on climate policy

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault faces both a personal and political challenge as he seeks to push the government's climate change agenda forward in the face of intense opposition from a newly re-elected Alberta government.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she's been "very frustrated by the posture" Guilbeault has taken toward her province. In her election night victory speech, she said she would not allow the federal government to impose policies on Alberta she views as damaging to the province's energy sector.

In an interview with CBC's The House airing Saturday, Guilbeault insisted the federal government is working successfully with Alberta on a number of issues, including biodiversity and tailings pond remediation.

Asked about Smith's comments, Guilbeault struck a conciliatory tone.

"I wouldn't say things are great," he said. "I'm saying we have our differences, but we have also the capacity to work them out."

Smith has been especially critical of the federal government's planned emissions cap for the oil and gas industry, which is expected to be in place by the end of the year. Smith has called it a "de facto production cap" and has claimed it would devastate the Alberta economy.

"I'm very optimistic that with technology we'll solve the problem," Smith told CBC's Power & Politics earlier this week. "But if you short-circuit that and try to achieve an unachievable target too early, you end up chasing investment away."

Guilbeault said it's government regulation that helped to guide that technological development.

"I mean, what will drive technological investment in de-carbonization is regulation," he said. "By putting in place smart regulations, we are ensuring in fact that those investments will be made so that we have jobs in Alberta in the energy sector 20 years, 25 years, 30 years down the road."

Guilbeault added that the coming draft regulations on an emissions cap will be open for comment and conversation.

"But we need [the emissions cap] for a number of different reasons," he said. "In a carbon constrained world, we will still need some oil even all the way to 2050. But what those people who still buy oil and gas will be looking for is oil that has a very low carbon footprint."

Guilbeault also implied that, outside of the public eye, there's room for cooperation with outwardly confrontational governments.

"I think we have to make a distinction between what is being said publicly and and when we sit down, when there's no camera, when there's no journalist[s]," he said. "People usually tend to be very reasonable and get down to business."

Hanging over the climate change policy debate is the Alberta Sovereignty Act, passed by the Smith government late last year. The legislation was billed as enabling Alberta to ignore federal laws.