Notley: Minister shows poor judgement

March 22, 2011

Alberta’s NDP environment critic Rachel Notley says Environment Minister Rob Renner should never have appointed Bruce Carson to Alberta’s oilsands monitoring panel.

RCMP have been asked to investigate Carson, a former advisor to Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for lobbying the federal government trying to sell water treatment systems for first nations communities. Renner waited for Carson to ask for a leave of absence from the oilsands panel, instead of taking charge and removing Carson.

“The company Carson allegedly lobbied for could sell water treatment systems to the very first nations affected by the oilsands monitoring panel – that doesn’t pass the smell test,” says Notley. “The data from oilsands monitoring could be lucrative for businesses selling treatment systems.”

She notes that Environment Minister Rob Renner said he would not remove Carson from the panel despite the allegations.

“The minister had to have known about Carson’s previous convictions for fraud, and had to know about Carson’s conflict of interest with water monitoring. The appointment shows the Tories don’t take environmental monitoring seriously,” Notley says.