Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Location: North Vancouver

The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson has served as the Member of Parliament for North Vancouver since 2015.

Raised in Saskatchewan, Minister Wilkinson spent more than 20 years in the private sector, holding leadership positions with a number of companies dedicated to the development of green technologies.

Minister Wilkinson’s work as CEO of both QuestAir Technologies and the former BioteQ Environmental Technologies (now BQE Water Inc.), in addition to his role as senior Vice-President of Business Development with Nexterra, provided him with extensive experience in the energy and environmental technology sectors. He also previously worked at Bain & Company, a leading global management consultancy.

A Rhodes Scholar, Minister Wilkinson made use of his educational background in public policy when he worked as a constitutional negotiator and a federal-provincial relations specialist for former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow. He has served on several industry and charitable boards, including the United Way of the Lower Mainland and the B.C. Technology Industry Association. He also served as a board member and treasurer of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.

Minister Wilkinson has deep roots in North Vancouver, where he is raising his family alongside his wife, Tara.

An agricultural engineer by training, María Luisa Albores González is a graduate of Chapingo Autonomous University (UACH) specializing in tropical regions with a focus on sustainable coffee cultivation.

She also did graduate studies in pedagogy of the subject and educational practice at the Center for Studies on Rural Development (CESDR).

Her further education includes studies in entrepreneurship at Mondragón University in Spain and at the Andalusian School of Social Economy.

Her career has been devoted to community service with extensive experience in the social and solidarity-based economy.

For over 10 years, Albores González has worked with cooperatives in Mexico and with Indigenous organizations, particularly in the State of Puebla’s Sierra Norte.

On July 5, 2018, President Donald J. Trump announced the appointment of Andrew Wheeler as the new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He had previously been confirmed by the US Senate as the EPA Deputy Administrator on April 12, 2018.

Wheeler has dedicated his career to advancing sound environmental policies. He began his career during the George H.W. Bush Administration as a special assistant in EPA’s Pollution Prevention and Toxics office. He was a principal and team leader of the Energy and Environment Practice Group at FaegreBD Consulting, as well as counsel at Faegre Baker Daniels law firm, where he had practiced since 2009. He also served as the co-chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Industry team across the entire firm.

Prior to his work with Faegre Baker Daniels, Mr. Wheeler served for six years as the majority staff director and chief counsel, as well as the minority staff director, of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and in a similar capacity for six years for the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, Wetlands and Nuclear Safety. He is also a past chairman of the National Energy Resource Organization (NERO) and a Stennis Fellow.

Wheeler was born in Hamilton, Ohio. He completed his law degree at Washington University in St. Louis, his MBA at George Mason University, and his undergraduate work in English and biology at Case Western Reserve University.