While warning Canadians of the looming dangers of climate change, federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s family has been holding stock in one of Canada’s largest gas companies, says Blacklock’s Reporter..Wilkinson admitted Monday his wife Tara own shares in Calgary-based Enbridge Inc..The North Vancouver Liberal MP has repeatedly invoked the couple’s school-age daughters in justifying federal climate change programs, but he failed to mention the shares..“There is no doubt it is the existential issue of our time,” Wilkinson testified last November 4 at the Commons environment committee..“It is something we must take action on in the short term if we want to leave a livable planet for our kids. We are doing the work to ensure we are moving forward in a manner whereby Canada can look our children in the eyes.”.Tara Wilkinson, in a filing under the Conflict Of Interest Act, said she held an undisclosed number of shares in Enbridge..Her husband had earlier praised the company by name for supporting the federal carbon tax on its natural gas customers..“Listen to some of the voices of Canadian industry, companies like Suncor, Enbridge and Shell (that) are in support of a carbon price,” Wilkinson told the Commons in 2016..He repeated the remark three times..Tara Wilkinson is a director of marketing for Best Buy Canada. She also disclosed stock holdings in other federally-regulated companies including Canadian Pacific Railway, Bell Corporation Enterprise Inc. and the Toronto Dominion Bank, as well as federal contractors like Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Amazon.com and 3M Company..Other cabinet members with family shareholdings in Enbridge include Attorney General David Lametti, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett and Senator Marc Gold (Que.), Government Representative in the Senate, as well as Deputy Finance Minister Michael Sabia, Liberal MP James Maloney (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont.), chair of the Commons natural resources committee, and Liberal MP Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal, Que.), parliamentary secretary for labour..“You know very well climate change is an existential threat from an environmental perspective,” Wilkinson earlier told the Commons..“It is an existential threat for human health.”.Wilkinson in 2016 said he attended his daughters’ North Vancouver school, Handsworth Secondary, to speak to students about the perils of climate change but he did not mention his family’s Enbridge stock..“As I stood in front of 200 students at Handsworth, in the high school that is attended by my two teenaged daughters, this responsibility felt very real,” said Wilkinson..“Through my discussions with these students, it was clear to me the issue of climate change is of critical importance to students.”.As recently as last Thursday, Wilkinson said he felt “a lot of pressure” on climate change..“That would be the pressure that we felt, pressure to honour the commitments we made to our children that we’re going to leave them something that is a workable and sustainable world,” he told reporters..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
