Aglukkaq Takes Environment Post as Ottawa Seeks To Win Over 1st Nations

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has moved his cabinet’s lone aboriginal minister into the sensitive portfolio of Environment as the government works to win crucial First Nations’ support for new pipelines and other resource-development projects."



"In the shuffle announced on Monday, Mr. Harper demoted former broadcaster Peter Kent to the back benches and appointed health minister Leona Aglukkaq to the critical post, where one of her first jobs will be to finalize long-promised federal regulations covering greenhouse-gas emissions in the oil and gas sector. The Conservative government is under great pressure to show it is serious about battling climate change and protecting the environment, even as it aggressively pursues energy and mining development.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, who has been the government’s point man on its so-called responsible resource development approach, remains in the post he has held since entering Parliament two years ago."

Shawn McCarthy reports for the Toronto Globe and Mail July 15 2013.

Source: Toronto Globe & Mail, 07/17/2013