Environment Minister tries to clarify remark that federal government will ‘stop investing in new road infrastructure’

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Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault faces journalists as he arrives for a meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 14, 2024.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is trying to walk back comments he made this week suggesting he was against federal support for new road infrastructure.

The remark spurred pointed criticism from the premiers of Ontario and Alberta, while federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Mr. Guilbeault “won’t be happy until we’re living back in mud huts.”

Arriving for Wednesday’s weekly Liberal caucus meeting, Mr. Guilbeault said he should have been more specific in his statement.

“Of course, we are funding roads,” Mr. Guilbeault told journalists.

He said he was referring to large projects like the Third Link in Quebec City, a controversial proposal to build a link for public transit only between Quebec City and the community of Lévis across the St. Lawrence River from the Quebec capital.

The project was originally budgeted at $6.5-billion, but has been recast to serve public transit and not individual auto traffic.

During a Monday conference on public transit in Montreal, Mr. Guilbeault, as quoted in The Montreal Gazette, said in a live feed from Ottawa that adding more roads and new lanes on existing roads has encouraged more car use which means more congestion, and more calls for road expansion.

“Our government has made the decision to stop investing in new road infrastructure. Of course we will continue to be there for cities, provinces and territories to maintain the existing network, but there will be no more envelopes from the federal government to enlarge the road network,” Mr. Guilbeault said.

“The analysis we have done is that the network is perfectly adequate to respond to the needs we have.”

In a posting on X, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Wednesday that he was “gobsmacked” by the notion that a federal minister said the government won’t invest in new roads or highways.

“He doesn’t care that you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I do. We’re building roads and highways, with or without a cent from the feds,” the premier wrote.

Ontario’s transportation minister, Prabmeet Sarkaria, said the federal government should ask how Ontarians sitting in gridlock every day trying to get home to their families feel about his comments on a stop to road infrastructure investment.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has been sharply critical of the minister over his positions on climate change as they apply to her province, also weighed in.

“Does this minister understand that most Canadians don’t live in downtown Montreal? Most of us can’t just head out the door in the snow and rain and just walk 10km to work each day,” Smith wrote in an X posting, asking if it was possible to return to the “real world.”

Mark Strahl, the federal Conservative transport minister, called Mr. Guilbeault’s remarks “an extreme position from an extreme environment minister.”