EDMONTON — Former Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault claims he rarely used the car and driver provided to him as a cabinet minister, despite holding out until officials made an exception and supplied a fully electric vehicle. "I don't own a car, but when I became a cabinet minister, they said, 'Oh, we're going to, you're going to have a car, and you're going to have a driver, and I said, okay, great, I want an electric vehicle," said Guilbeault on Wednesday's episode of The Herle Burly show. "'Oh,' they said, 'it's not possible.' Why? 'No one has a fully electric vehicle? You can have a hybrid, but you can't have a fully electric vehicle.' I said, 'Okay, fine. I don't want a car then if you can't give me 100% electric.' And it became possible all of a sudden to have an electric vehicle." .Guilbeault then told show host David Herle that he rarely used the publicly provided electric vehicle that he had held out for. "I would, I take the train most of the time, and I've taken, for the last seven years, the train mostly between Montreal and Ottawa, but every now and then my driver would pick me up or drive me to Montreal," Guilbeault said. "And between Ottawa and Montreal, it is complicated to find enough charging stations. Like sometimes we'd get a place, and we'd have to wait 20 minutes, 30 minutes, because someone was there and there's only one or two.".The former environment minister’s career, both inside and outside of politics, has centred around advocating against climate change, including one instance where he was arrested for climbing Toronto's CN Tower while holding a banner that said, "Canada and (George W.) Bush — Climate Killers."Guilbeault told Herle that despite having four children, including one who plays hockey, he has never owned a car because "it's a real hassle" to try and find parking in the area of Montreal where he lives. "We figured out ways to do this without a car, using public transit, carpooling with other parents," Guilbeault said. He also said he rides his bicycle year-round. .The conversation was sparked when Herle asked Guilbeault whether he thought electric vehicles could succeed in North America, or whether hybrid vehicles were the most likely solution, given that Americans are not willing to give up combustion engines. "I mean, even in Canada, you've seen an upswing recently in the sales of EV, which is a combination of the fact that we've brought back the rebate for electric vehicles, but also the price of gasoline," Guilbeault said. "People are sick and tired of, I don't own a car, but I know a lot of people who do, and you know, $2 a litre of gasoline, $1.90 $2.05, they're like 'That's enough. I'm moving away from that.' I think it's going to be very hard to stop those forces, but I do think there will be a market for plug-in hybrids for a while still."
