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‘A lot of Albertans are feeling like a huge weight has been lifted,’ said Heather Exner-Pirot
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith Smith could have hardly dreamt up a better foil than former federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. Photo by Brent Calver/Postmedia; Spencer Colby/CP
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OTTAWA — Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz didn’t mince words when asked on Thursday about the legacy of federal counterpart Steven Guilbeault, as news broke he was on his way out of the environment and climate portfolio.
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“Minister Guilbeault led the creation of all of these problematic and economically devastating (Liberal) policies… putting an activist agenda ahead of the well being and economic health of Albertans and Canadians from coast to coast,” Schulz told reporters in Edmonton.
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“We continue to see policies from him that are devastating to the economy and jobs across Canada.”
Schulz said she hoped to see Guilbeault left out of new Prime Minister Mark Carney’s maiden cabinet, a wish that went unfulfilled as Carney named him Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity and Quebec lieutenant on Friday.
Guilbeault will also hold onto his role overseeing Parks Canada, despite criticism of his response to last summer’s wildfires in Alberta’s Jasper National Park.
This was about the kindest tribute Guilbeault could have expected from a province where his championing of anti-oil and gas policies made him public enemy number one.
Schulz’s boss, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, notoriously asked American right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson to put Guilbeault in his “crosshairs” at a January 2024 event in Edmonton, a remark Guilbeault said was an incitement to violence.
Smith could have hardly dreamt up a better foil than Guilbeault, a lifelong environmental activist and climate zealot seemingly rolled out of central casting for the part of Alberta’s bête noire.
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Guilbeault’s first brush with national fame tellingly came in 2001, when he and a fellow activist scaled Toronto’s CN Tower in a dangerous publicity stunt and unfurled a banner scrawled with the anti-oil message “Canada and Bush Climate Killers.”
The spider-man act got Guilbeault and his friend nabbed for criminal mischief, spawning a perp-walk photo that frequently resurfaced during his time as environment minister.
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Calgary-based energy analyst Heather Exner-Pirot said few in Alberta will be sad to see Guilbeault move on from the environment ministry.
“A lot of Albertans are feeling like a huge weight has been lifted,” said Exner-Pirot.
Exner-Pirot said the presence of a known anti-fossil fuel activist at the helm of the federal environment ministry made it virtually impossible to coax private companies to put up money for major oil and gas projects.
“No one in Canada was ever going to propose a new pipeline when Minister Guilbeault had the veto card under the Impact Assessment Act,” said Exner-Pirot.
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Chris Severson-Baker, executive director of Alberta-based clean energy think tank the Pembina Institute, said he saw few signs of Guilbeault’s climate zealot image in his personal dealings with the minister.
“Minister Guilbeault was very pragmatic and reasonable in hearing out our concerns about the different regional effects of some of his big climate policies,” Severson-Baker said.
Severson-Baker noted that Guilbeault made Alberta-friendly revisions to federal clean energy and emissions cap regulations after lengthy consultation periods.
Carney announced on Friday that Winnipeg MP Frank Duguid would be replacing Guilbeault as minister of environment and climate change.
Carney also announced Friday, in his first official act as prime minister, that he’d immediately remove the consumer carbon tax, a policy that Guilbeault championed as environment minister.
National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com
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