TORONTO STAR Opinion: As environment minister, I believed the oil sands sector would help us save the planet. I was wrong. Dec. 6,2024 Then Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna speaks with the media at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, Wednesday September 20, 2017.
I understand how persuasive these companies can be. As environment minister, I bought into the idea that tighter regulations and technological advances like carbon capture and storage (CCS) would allow us to continue developing the oil sands while being serious about climate action. I also believed that working with Alberta to help diversify their economy would require compromise. Yes, I found the government's decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline a bitter pill to swallow. But I rationalized it by telling myself that it was in the national interest and was the price of bringing Albertans onside with Canada's climate plan. Over time I started to have serious doubts, about both the pipeline and our conciliatory approach to the oil sands sector more broadly. They started when I learned that Conservative politicians and oil sands companies were spreading rumours that we bought the pipeline in order to kill it. Give me a break. (Today I wish we hadn't bought it at all. As I watched the $4.5 billion purchase price balloon to the $34 billion spent to date, as I came to realize that not only will taxpayer dollars probably never be recouped, but also that Canadians will likely be left with a very expensive stranded asset, I came to regret not pushing back harder.) It's also come to light recently that the epic fight led by the Conservatives to kill carbon pricing that I found myself embroiled in, especially online, was supported and significantly underwritten by oil and gas companies. The campaign to discredit carbon pricing by falsely claiming it raised the cost of living - when, in fact, it benefits most Canadians — was amplified by rage-farming outlets, bots and social media algorithms. It became increasingly obvious to me that the oil sands sector, along with their cheerleaders in the Alberta government and the federal Conservative Party, have no intention of making the fundamental changes required to align with the global shift toward a low-carbon economy.
It’s tempting to make a “Minister for Wallet Inspections” joke or speculate whether it was childhood exposure to lead paint or a more recent blow to the head that made her think in *2016* oil companies were acting in good faith, but ultimately this look inside gov’t is just massively depressing.
