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Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice speaks with reporters after giving a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa, on June 10, 2009.Sean Kilpatrick

Stephen Maher of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald publishes what Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said about Environment Minister Jim Prentice:

Money earmarked to support wind energy producers was diverted to research and development in the oil patch in backroom budget wrangling, the minister of natural resources said in a conversation with an aide in January.

Lisa Raitt told aide Jasmine MacDonnell that she suspects Environment Minister Jim Prentice took the money for wind power and redirected it to his Clean Energy Plan - a $1-billion fund for research and development in the oil sands.

... Ms. MacDonnell tells Ms. Raitt that CanWEA, the Canadian Wind Energy Association, had sent a letter to its supporters complaining about the lack of funding for wind energy in the budget.

"I'm not going to put up with the whining of CanWEA, and the reason being is that they're not utilizing the money that is there now," says Ms. Raitt. "And until these things don't start getting built."

Ms. MacDonnell appears to read from the letter from CanWEA: "We know that the proposal was actively promoted and pushed by Minister Raitt. In fact, it is our understanding that it was actually part of the budget until it was taken out very late in the process."

Ms. Raitt responds: "No. No. I would never have told that."

"You wouldn't have told her," says Ms. MacDonnell. "Is that true?"

"Yes," says Ms. Raitt. "It is true."

"So somebody is talking," says Ms. MacDonnell.

"Someone in Finance talked," says Ms. Raitt. "Am I going to get blamed for this?"

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