UNDER FIRE Ontario’s energy minister doubles down on controversial climate change remarks
Climate comments prompt another minister to distance himself
Ontario’s Energy Minister Greg Rickford has doubled down on quotes from a website denying a growing scientific consensus on climate change, prompting a colleague in Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet to distance himself from the controversial remarks.
Rickford faced questions in the legislature Wednesday about his choice of words from Climate Change Dispatch, which he used earlier this week to justify the cancellation of more than 750 renewable energy projects that will cost taxpayers $231 million in compensation costs.
“As a well-studied person, I take every opportunity, whether it’s on the internet or sources of literature, to consider different points of view,” Rickford, a nurse, lawyer and former federal cabinet member, said before deflecting further questions to Environment Minister Jeff Yurek.
Yurek scrambled to distract from Rickford’s comments that attempted to equate Germany’s recent struggles with wind power to the Ford government’s decision to cancel wind and solar projects in July 2018 to save electricity ratepayers $790 million.
“I’ve never read Climate Change Dispatch so I have no thought on it at all,” Yurek told reporters after Rickford did not emerge from the legislature to take customary questions from the media.
Yurek was evasive when asked if the online U.S.-based publication — which posted a story
Wednesday critical of what it called “the media’s Chicken Little routine about the environment” based on emerging reports from climate scientists — is a good source of information for a minister in charge of the high-profile energy file.
“I’m not going to discuss my colleague at all. Everybody has their own freedom to speak in the House. But we stand by our made-in-Ontario environment plan that we brought forward a year ago.”
While Rickford walked away Tuesday from a question on whether he believes climate change is caused by human activity, Yurek responded “I’m sure it plays quite a bit of a role based on the science that’s out there.”
Opposition parties said Rickford
has embarrassed himself and the Progressive Conservative government, which has faced criticism for cancelling the previous Liberal government’s cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is fighting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax in court.
“I was shocked in the first place that he would source a climate denial magazine when he’s looking at public policy. Who on earth does that?” said New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth).
“The fact that he hasn’t learned that and … doubled down on it today, to me, is quite outrageous. His credibility is down the drain.”
The premier should be taking action with Rickford, said
Green Leader Mike Schreiner.
“Any minister of the Crown citing a debunked junk science climate denial website undermines any credibility this minister has on the file.”
The incident raises questions about Rickford’s suitability for the portfolio, said interim Liberal Leader John Fraser.
“I haven’t seen anything that breeds any confidence in this minister at all. I don’t think he’s the right person for the job.”
In defending the cancelled green projects as unnecessary when Ontario had an energy surplus, Rickford cited a Climate Change Dispatch article with the headline “Germany pulls plug on wind energy as industry suffers severe crisis” and called it “one of my favourite periodicals.”