The vote is on: time to move forward on climate, say environmental groups

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The counting of the mail-in ballots lasted until Wednesday afternoon at the Laurier-Sainte-Marie, but with 95 percent of the votes counted, liberal Steven Guilbeault was 2,328 votes ahead of his closest rival and claiming the victory.

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It wasn’t the easy victory that Guilbeault and his supporters hoped for, leading some to wonder if voters in that lead were punishing Liberals for recruiting the long-time climate defender to attract green votes in 2019 only to send him to the equity portfolio once chosen. . Many in Quebec wonder if Guilbeault will be appointed Minister of the Environment this time.

“It is not for me to decide,” Guilbeault said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It was a privilege to be around the cabinet table and I feel that as minister of heritage I helped the arts and culture sector overcome the worst crisis it has seen in 100 years. But if the prime minister asked me to serve in another capacity, I would be very happy to do so as well. “

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But climate change is the reason he got into politics, he acknowledged.

“The weather is something that I am very passionate about. I dedicated most of my adult life to it, started (with Greenpeace) at 21 or 22 and never stopped. So it’s something I’ll keep working on regardless of where I land. “

He added that he considers Jonathan Wilkinson “a great minister” and worked closely with him as a member of the cabinet committee on the environment and the economy and on the Liberals’ Green Recovery Plan. He believes that the climate fight must be a priority in which all ministers must participate.

Guilbeault said he understands the impatience to see Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions decline and acknowledges that so far that goal has eluded the liberal government. But cuts from measures like the hundreds of public transportation projects the liberal government has funded across the country, including 300 electric buses for Montreal, will take time to show up in emissions inventories.

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“It takes time for these projects to produce results. Some things can be done more quickly, ”he said. For example, the Liberals now have a clear mandate to increase their carbon tax from $ 40 / tonne to $ 50 next year and then $ 15 a year to $ 170 / tonne by 2030.

Climate policy expert Mark Jaccard agreed with Guilbeault de Wilkinson’s assessment, adding that many factors must be considered when Trudeau chooses his next environment minister. For example, being from Saskatchewan is a plus for Wilkinson, he said.

“If you’re trying to advance climate action, that can help because Saskatchewan and Alberta are the biggest impediments to rapid decarbonization, because they really do well through the fossil fuel industry. That doesn’t mean they are evil people, but their own interest is to resist rapid decarbonization, ”said Jaccard, professor of sustainable energy at Simon Fraser University.

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Before entering politics, Wilkinson worked in the cleantech sector, which Jaccard considers one more point in his favor.

“When you’re trying to move a country with significant fossil fuel resources toward rapid decarbonization, you can go to Alberta and talk to Albertans about how you can still develop your oil resources as long as you convert them to hydrogen or electricity and bury them. carbon dioxide “.

And environmental groups say it doesn’t matter who the environment minister is, as long as the government gets to work immediately to accelerate the pace of climate action.

“Canadians voted for parties to work together, and a clear majority of them voted for parties that propose serious and bold climate policies,” said Caroline Brouillette, national policy director for Climate Action Network Canada in a joint statement released Tuesday by a coalition. from environmental groups whose membership includes more than one million Canadians.

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“It is time for Prime Minister Trudeau to work with the other parties to step up these climate efforts, and quickly.”

Jaccard agrees. “Now is the time for all climate-conscious Canadians to put their feet (on all sides) in the fire,” he said, adding that the NDP and Bloc Québécois “must work to ensure aggressive climate policies are passed. and quickly”.

Those environmental groups want Trudeau to announce more ambitious emission reduction targets before the United Nations climate conference in November. Taking into account Canada’s historic contribution to emissions, a fair reduction target would be 60 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, they said.

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