Liberal environment minister Steven Guilbeault said in a recent interview that he hopes to phase out fossil fuels within two years.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Guilbeault made the comments to the left-wing outlet The Narwhal, which receives taxpayer funds from the federal government.
“My timeline is two years,” Guilbeault said. “So in the next two years, more stringent methane regulations, zero-emission vehicle standards, net-zero grid by 2035, cap on oil and gas and obviously phasing out fossil fuels – all of these things must be in place in the coming eighteen months.”
“I mean, maybe 2024, but that’s the type of time frame we have to work with and it’s going to be tough because on the one hand some people are going to criticize us for not giving them enough time to be consulted, but the state of climate change is such that we need to learn to do things faster and that’s certainly true of us as a government,” Guilbeault added.
“As a minority government it would be optimistic to think we have more than two years.”
The Narwhal was given $254,655 by the federal government while Guilbeault was still Minister of Heritage. The outlet has also received extensive foreign and domestic funding including $518,360 from the Wilburforce Foundation of Seattle, $117,228 from the European Climate Foundation and $74,442 from Tides Canada Foundation.
Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole blasted Guilbeault’s remarks, calling the former radical Greenpeace member an “out of touch activist.”
“When Trudeau’s Environment Minister says he wants to ban all oil and gas in two years he needs to answer how Canadians who are struggling to make ends meet are going to heat their homes,” said O’Toole in a statement.
Guilbeault was handed the environment portfolio in October after Trudeau retained a minority government during the 2021 election.
In 2001, while still involved with Greenpeace, Guilbeault was arrested by police after illegally scaling Toronto’s CN Tower with a fellow radical environmentalist.
“I think in many ways… I’m still this guy who climbed the CN Tower,” Guilbeault said in an interview with the National Post.
“But to me, civil disobedience was never a goal in and of itself. It was just a tool. And now I’m using different tools.”
