New Canadian Natural Resources Minister urges green/oil-sands balance

Reuters, Ottawa, Jan 19 2010--New Canadian Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis said on Tuesday that Canada, the biggest energy exporter to the United States, must balance the environment and economic growth.

Paradis, who had been Public Works minister, replaces Lisa Raitt in the Natural Resources portfolio, which includes some oversight of the country's growing oil sands sector, the nuclear industry and energy exports.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has touted Canada as an emerging "energy superpower" as output from the country's oil sands, the largest crude reserves outside the Middle East, rises.

That has also made the country a focal point for environmental activists concerned about rising greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands projects and the destruction of large swathes of boreal forest in northern Alberta.

However Paradis, who has some experience in the portfolio after serving a year as parliamentary secretary to the Natural Resources minister in 2006, said the needs of the economy and the environment must be balanced, echoing a favorite line of Environment Minister Jim Prentice.

Asked by reporters whether production from the oil sands should be curbed to cut pollution, the new minister said: "The key point in that is to balance the economy and the environment ... I expect that the industry will share its burden to reach that goal".

While he is little known in the Canadian energy industry, Paradis's appointment was being cautiously welcomed.

"We're looking forward to working with him," said Greg Stringham, a vice-president at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, a lobby group representing the bulk of the country's big oil and gas firms. "He does bring a year's experience as (Natural Resources) parliamentary secretary, so he knows our issues well and comes from public works, which is fairly complex."

Paradis is a lawyer from Thetford Mines, Quebec, once the home of a thriving asbestos mining industry.

"We are fortunate to have a new minister with mining in his riding," Gavin Dirom, chief executive of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia, said in a statement. "Minister Paradis has a track record of standing up ... for the mining sector. (Reporting by Randall Palmer and Scott Haggett; editing by Peter Galloway)