Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and former environment minister Steven Guilbeault will not resign from Mark Carney’s cabinet over the upcoming pipeline agreement between Ottawa and Alberta, according to a senior government source.
Guilbeault had been rumoured to be unhappy with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to agree to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would outline conditions under which a potential new oil pipeline could be built to the northwest coast of British Columbia.
The senior government source told Global News that Guilbeault and Carney spoke about the pipeline MoU in what was described as an “honest and candid” conversation.
One of the leading environmentalists in the Liberal caucus, Guilbeault is a major political figure for the Liberals in his home province of Quebec and was a staunch defender of the consumer carbon tax brought in under Justin Trudeau.
Despite Carney’s dumping the consumer carbon tax as his first act as prime minister, Guilbeault, a former Greenpeace activist, agreed to run again and endorsed Carney in the Liberal leadership race.
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While Guilbeault staying is a major political win for Carney, not all Liberals are happy about the pending agreement between Ottawa and Alberta.
Multiple senior Liberals who spoke with Global News expressed a belief that despite the MoU, a pipeline to the northwest coast of B.C. will never be built, listing the need to find a private proponent and getting the support of B.C. First Nations as major hurdles.
“What we are doing is a series of major investments — nation-building projects that make our country stronger, more independent from the United States — and these projects are done in a way that benefit and have the full support of Indigenous peoples, and are consistent with our climate goals,” Carney said when Global News asked him Sunday about the status of negotiations with Alberta on a pipeline project.
The prime minister will announce the conditions for how a new pipeline from Alberta to B.C. could be built Thursday in Calgary with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
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