A press conference by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault in Montreal was interrupted by a protester who accused him of being a “climate criminal” because of his endorsement of the Baie du North in Newfoundland, from the Norwegian company Equinor.
Posted at 11:34 a.m.
As the man shouted in English, Mr. Guilbeault said to him at one point, “I agree with you. »
During the question period, The Press asked him what he was okay with, as he and his government authorized the project.
Mr. Guilbeault replied that what he agreed with was the need “to do more. I came into politics exactly for that, to do more.”
About the unplanned intervention of the activist, Mr. Guilbeaut said that it is “the beauty of living in a democracy”, adding that he had already, “in another life, crashed some press conferences. So I can understand.”
But you actually said yes to the Baie du Nord oil project? To this, Mr. Guilbeault replied that he had indeed “accepted the favorable recommendations of the Environment Agency of Canada”, which was set up “to depoliticize the system”.
“If we create an organization, if we give it the mandate to do that, we can’t then say we don’t like your recommendations. [même si] you are experts and you worked on it for four years”.
“And on the corner of the table, I’m going to decide that I don’t agree?” »
He added, however, that the company has an obligation to be carbon neutral by 2050 and that each year until then there will be a review of whether the company is progressing towards this goal.
Finally, he pointed out that at the same time that the Baie du Nord project was accepted, he refused “the expansion of an oil sands mine in Alberta which would have emitted 10 times more greenhouse gases than equal “.
“This is the first time in the country’s history that an environment minister has said no to an oil sands mine. »
The press conference was on the theme of monkey pox – the Minister of the Environment replaced his health colleague, Jean-Yves Duclos, for a funding announcement for organizations helping the gay community.