UCP leaving provincial climate change division as is
By GILLIAN SLADE on June 22, 2019.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade The UCP government says it has made no changes to the climate change office/division within the environment ministry since it was elected. In 2016 an NDP cabinet shuffle included an announcement that a new “climate change office” had been created to help implement the government’s climate leadership plan. The new office would report to Shannon Phillips, who at the time was minister of Alberta environment and parks. Dave Cournoyer, a writer and political watcher living in Edmonton, has a piece online mentioning this announcement. We also know that there was at least one senior manager, Max Fawcett, in that office. This was revealed after Fawcett posted a controversial Tweet in 2018. A spokesperson for Minister Jason Nixon, Alberta environment & parks, says that since the early 2000s, even before the NDP government, there was a climate change “division” that was part of Alberta environment. “The previous government took the division out of the department early in their mandate, but consolidated it back into the Ministry in 2018. I can’t speak to why this was done, but the office is now considered a division within Environment and Parks and hasn’t seen any staffing changes,” said the spokesperson in an email. Requests were made to both Rachel Notley, former premier, and Phillips for confirmation of the details but so far there has been no response. 9-8
