Environment Minister Peter Kent had not yet received his first briefing from his new department when he set off a storm of controversy by launching a campaign in defence of Alberta's oil sands, prompting environmentalists to say there is little doubt Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave him his marching orders to begin selling the image of "ethical oil" to the U.S. and beyond.
"If in fact he proceeded in advance of his departmental briefing, that lack of prudence and consideration is very worrisome," Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence Canada, told The Hill Times. "The last thing this complicated issue needs is a shoot-from-the-hip approach by the environment minister. Canadians need the environment minister to provide some leadership and some thoughtfulness on this issue, and to present Canadians with some real solutions, not to further inflame the debate."
The top press aide to Mr. Kent (Thornhill, Ont.) declined to confirm the timing of Mr. Kent's first official briefings as environment minister, but they took place last week, a full week after Mr. Kent outlined his ethical oil argument in the first newspaper interview he conducted after he took up his new post. The interview, on Jan. 5, the day after Mr. Kent was sworn in, was with a reporter from the Calgary Herald, the largest newspaper in Alberta's oil-patch corporate capital, where the petroleum generals who oversee the massive and controversial oil sands mines reside.
Source: The Hill Times
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