Guilbeault, a long-time anti-nuclear activist, is creating a $5 billion Government of Canada bond to fund green energy projects, but he’s made clear that certain industries, such as nuclear and coal-replacing natural gas, need not apply
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The Trudeau Liberals claim they care about lowering carbon emissions and also about the prosperity of Canadians.
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Why then is Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault taking his most forceful step yet to stomp down on the one energy system that does more than any other to slash carbon emissions?
Nuclear power — a made-in-Canada system, which unlike unreliable and imported wind and solar technology provides steady low-carbon energy that can safely and efficiently build up a thriving modern economy — has just been classified by Guilbeault and the Trudeau government essentially as something foul, something sinful, something unhealthy.
Guilbeault, a long-time anti-nuclear activist, is creating a $5 billion Government of Canada bond to fund green energy projects, but he’s made clear that certain industries, such as nuclear and coal-replacing natural gasneed not apply.
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In its summary of industries to be excluded from Canadian green funds, the federal government explicitly lists six bad boys — fossil fuels, arms manufacturing, gambling, production of tobacco and alcohol, and nuclear energy.
That’s right, nuclear is right up there with products generally regarded and legislated as sinful, such as gambling, booze and smokes.
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Guilbeault’s no-go list is utterly at odds with the direction of the European Union, which just now announced that most major nuclear power (as well as some natural gas) projects will be classified as sustainable and climate-friendly investments.
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In Canada, there has been no greater powerhouse of carbon reduction for decades than our world-renowned fleet of CANDU reactors, mainly in Ontario, and from our export of mined uranium from Saskatchewan.
in his formal request to the House of Commons, Toronto physician Chris Keefer, president of Canadians for Nuclear Energy, notes:
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- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls for as much as a five-fold increase in nuclear power to avoid climate catastrophe.
- Ontario nuclear power achieved the greatest CO2 reduction measure in North American history by providing 90 per cent of the ultra-low emissions power to remove coal from the grid.
- Canadian nuclear energy produces no air, water or CO2 pollution while safely containing its waste stream.
- Canadian uranium used in nuclear reactors all over the world to produce carbon-free electricity displaces 260 megatonnes of CO2 per year, offsetting one-third of Canada’s 730 megatonnes of annual emissions.
- CANDU nuclear energy has a 95 per cent made-in-Canada supply chain which captures all of the value of any investment within our national economy, supports local communities, and provides more than 76,000 well-paying jobs.
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I contacted Guilbeault about why nuclear was excluded. I got the following email from his office. “Canada’s green bond framework is fully aligned with international green bond standards and market expectations.”
This statement is simply not true, as we see from the European Union’s embrace of nuclear power under its funding plans.
Nuclear nations like France and South Korea have reversed plans to move away from nuclear and now plan to build more reactors.
Guilbeault has repeatedly claimed he’s not against nuclear power but it must compete on the open market with solar and wind. But there’s no open market here, there’s a Liberal government picking winners and losers for investment, and kicking nuclear and natural gas to the curb right off the top as losers.
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In an interview, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said it’s time for the federal government to get serious about reducing emissions instead of pandering to “irrational opposition” to nuclear and natural gas.
“It’s bizarre to see the federal government exclude from their green bonds program the two things that are most likely to reduce emissions — nuclear and natural gas. This is a triumph of ideology over science.”
“He’ll do whatever it takes to oppose and cripple our nuclear sector,” Keefer says of Guilbeault. “It’s shocking. It’s out-of-step with the scientific consensus on the need for nuclear to achieve net-zero, to achieve rapid decarbonization. I think of Guilbeault as a bit of a fossil. He’s so bound up by his anti-nuclear priorities, his ideology opposition to the technology that he’s disrespecting the scientific consensus.
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I wonder if something else isn’t also at work here.
Along with being an environmental activist for decades, Guilbeault also worked for a decade as a paid expert consultant for firms such as a green investment fund in Quebec. That firm was all about raising money for wind and biofuels, while at the same time Guilbeault worked to get nuclear plants shut down in Quebec.
Could it be that that’s where Guilbeault’s heart and head still are, in assisting his old Quebec business cronies to get billions in government funds?
If he ever agrees to actually talk to me, I’ll ask him.
