Powering Canada Past Coal - Ep45: Catherine McKenna

Catherine McKenna is a Canadian Liberal politician serving as the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities since 2019. Before that she was the Minister of Environment and Climate Change for 4 years.

Her ministerial mandate includes ensuring infrastructure investments support just economic growth and the clean energy transition. Her ministerial mandate includes, inter alia, delivering of “accessible affordable, active and zero-emissions transit options”, “investing in large-scale building retrofits and clean power” and “continuing to close the infrastructure gap in Indigenous communities, particularly with respect to affordable housing”.

Before taking the infrastructure and communities portfolio, Catherine was in charge of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. She was appointed just before COP21 in Paris and played a significant role during the summit.

Catherine is a lawyer by education: she co-founded Canadian Lawyers Abroad, now called Level, a charity through which Canadian lawyers are able to work on pro bono cases around the world. She has also worked in leading Canadian and Indonesian law firms and was a negotiator with the United Nations mission in East Timor.

Catherine holds degrees from the University of Toronto, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and McGill University’s Faculty of Law. A mom of three, avid swimmer and canoeist, Minister McKenna is a long-time resident of the Glebe in Ottawa.

Further reading:

Official bio

https://www.canada.ca/en/government/ministers/catherine-mckenna.html

Minister Catherine McKenna: 'We need to get rid of fossil fuel subsidies' (May 2021)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/05/04/news/minister-catherine-mckenna-infrastructure-investment-climate-solutions-Biden-fossil-fuel-subsidies

McKenna: Five years after the Paris Agreement, we’ve reached a new tipping point on climate change (December 2020)

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/mckenna-five-years-after-the-paris-agreement-weve-reached-a-new-tipping-point-on-climate-change