Harper ministers head in opposite directions on climate-change debate

OTTAWA – Just as one federal cabinet minister is urging a more sophisticated tone to the climate-change debate, a second cabinet minister finds himself trying to prove he is not a climate-change denier.

Environment Minister Peter Kent this week said that while the federal government would never opt for a carbon-pricing scheme itself, it would be open minded about pricing arrangements set up by the provinces.

That was a change in tone for Conservatives who have spent day after day attacking any kind of carbon-pricing regime.

But a day later, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver appeared to play down the urgency of fighting climate change.

In an editorial board meeting with La Presse in Montreal, Oliver cited scientists who say that fear of climate change has been exaggerated.

The quote was confirmed through a transcript of that part of the meeting, provided to The Canadian Press on Friday by Oliver’s spokesman, who also included a link to an article by a climate-change skeptic as one source of Oliver’s thinking.