Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is demanding that the new Liberal environment minister disavow misleading comments made by her colleague and predecessor, Canadian Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault.
Smith has frequently clashed with Guilbeault, who formerly held the role of environment minister. Smith has previously labelled him as “an ideologue,” “irritating,” “a national embarrassment,” “awful,” “dangerous,” and more.
Now, Smith is accusing Guilbeault of misleading Canadians once again.
“Canada’s new ‘Canadian Identity’ minister, Steven Guilbeault, just deceived Canadians, saying we don’t need more pipelines because the TMX pipeline is only 40 per cent full and peak oil will be in two years,” said Smith.
Guilbeault recently strayed from his culture portfolio, making inaccurate comments about Canadian pipelines and oil.
Guilbeault claimed that oil demand would peak in 2028-29 worldwide and in Canada. He also said there are no investors for oil and gas or support for an East-West pipeline.
He also said that pipelines are built by companies, not the government.
However, the Trans Mountain Expansion was initially set to be built by private investors. After facing regulatory hurdles, court challenges, and political opposition from the Trudeau government, the private investors backed out, and the federal government purchased the project for $4.5 billion. It ultimately cost taxpayers $30.9 billion to fund.
“The facts are that TMX, which just opened and would have been built entirely with private dollars if Ottawa hadn’t made it impossible for the original proponent to build it, is already close to capacity,” said Smith.
She added that demand for bitumen is projected to grow for decades, and it will be required to replace conventional U.S. oil fields.
“This is just another example of how misleading and destructive this former environment minister was to Alberta’s and Canada’s economy and investment climate,” said Smith. “We ask for the new environment minister, Julie Dabrusin, to disavow his comments and commit to working with Alberta to build new pipelines to access new markets.”
Smith is calling on Dabrusin to disavow Guilbeault’s comments just one day after she criticized the new environment minister, along with Carney’s newly unveiled ministry.
“Not only is she a self-proclaimed architect of the designation of plastics as toxic, but she is a staunch advocate against oil sands expansion, a proponent of phasing out oil and gas, and for the last four years she has served as the right-hand to former Environment Minister and militant environmentalist, Steven Guilbeault,” said Smith.
She said that Dabrusin’s appointment was “a step in the wrong direction.”
Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer blasted Guilbeault, too.
He said that Guilbeault lied about Trans Mountain’s operating capacity and neglected to mention the billions of dollars lost in energy investment in Canada.
“The Liberals attacked Canada’s oil and gas industry for ten years,” said Scheer. “Canadians don’t want more of the same.”