Danielle Smith reignites feud with Guilbeault over his plans for Canada's national parks

OTTAWA — Steven Guilbeault may no longer be federal environment minister, but Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she still sees him as a threat to the province’s oil and gas industry. Smith said on her weekly radio show this weekend that Guilbeault, now heritage minister, has an “overt motive” to establish new federally protected parks in the path of pipelines and other energy infrastructure. She added that she wouldn’t consent to the creation of any new federal parks in Alberta. “I do not want to see one additional acre of territory that’s within Alberta turned into a federal park … we certainly don’t need Steven Guilbeault telling us what is important to protect in Alberta,” said Smith. “If there is critical habitat that Albertans want to protect … we’ll put in provincial parks.” Guilbeault, a former Greenpeace activist, was shuffled out of the environment portfolio in March by Prime Minister Mark Carney but kept his role as minister responsible for Parks Canada. This puts him in charge of implementing the Liberals’ campaign promise to create at least 10 national parks and protect 30 per cent of public lands by 2030. According to Parks Canada’s website, the agency is currently vetting four proposed national parks and protected areas, including a northern Manitoba watershed on Hudson Bay, one possible destination for future oil shipments . Neither Guilbeault’s office nor Parks Canada gave an immediate response to Smith’s comments about future federal parks blocking energy infrastructure. This isn’t the first time that mistrust has flared between Smith’s United Conservative Party government and Parks Canada. Greater Edmonton UCP MLA Brandon Lunty put forward a private member’s bill in late 2023 barring municipalities and Parks Canada from expanding urban parks without the province’s consent. The bill was signed into law in 2024. Lunty told the National Post that he decided to champion the bill when he caught wind of bilateral discussions Edmonton’s city council was having with federal officials about an urban park in the capital region. “It seemed like they were down the road a bit on those conversations and I kept coming back to the question of, well, what about the provincial perspective on this?” said Lunty. He added that several residents came forward to him with similar concerns about the lack of provincial engagement on the proposed urban park. Lunty said that he and several other UCP MLAs were concerned after learning that Guilbeault would keep his job as minister responsible for Parks Canada after the cabinet shuffle in March. “Some of the initiatives we saw under minister Guilbeault in his previous files were, frankly, pretty harmful to Alberta’s energy sector and our economy, so (the re-appointment) was certainly something that was noted,” said Lunty. Guilbeault was criticized by many, including Alberta Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen , for not doing more to clear out highly flammable dead trees from Alberta’s Jasper National Park prior to devastating summer 2024 wildfires. Alberta Public Safety Minister and Deputy Premier Mike Ellis has also suggested that he and other provincial officials were sidelined by Guilbeault during the recovery efforts in Jasper. National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.