New federal environment minister says his climate plan is not a ‘secret agenda’

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Wednesday there is nothing 'really new`` in the political rhetoric between Alberta and Ottawa around climate change this week.

OTTAWA — Newly minted Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Wednesday there is nothing “really new“ in the political rhetoric between Alberta and Ottawa around climate change this week, and shrugged off any suggestion his appointment will make that relationship more difficult than it already is.

Guilbeault is a former environmental activist from Quebec who has called the oilsands “dirty” and argued that pipelines and oil and gas expansion are not compatible with meeting Canada’s climate goals.

Elected in 2019, he was appointed to cabinet but not to the environment post many expected. Instead, he spent the last two years as minister of heritage while former cleantech CEO Jonathan Wilkinson shepherded through net-zero climate legislation and stronger greenhouse gas targets in the Environment Department.

There was talk in 2019 that Guilbeault’s appointment would have rubbed salt in the open sore that was the Ottawa-Alberta relationship. But that all changed Tuesday when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau majorly shook up his inner circle, moving Wilkinson to Natural Resources and Guilbeault into Environment.

It was not, Guilbeault insists, at his demand.

“I was never promised anything and I never asked for anything either,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

But rub salt in the wound it has, with Conservative MPs critical of the decision and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney warning that Guilbeault’s appointment to the environment portfolio sent a “problematic message” to his province about Ottawa’s plans for the oil and gas sector. He called Guilbeault’s “personal background and track record” on climate and oil and gas concerning.

Guilbeault dismissed any suggestion he will make the job of Ottawa-Alberta relations more thorny, pushing back with his own criticism of Kenney for skipping the United Nations COP26 climate talks that start next week in Scotland.