Steven Guilbeault evasive about political future after criticizing major projects reform

OTTAWA — Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault, a former federal environment minister, remained evasive about his political future after starkly criticizing his government’s new proposal to speed up Canada’s regulatory process for major projects.

Guilbeault has been the talk of the town in Ottawa ever since he said in media interviews on Friday and over the weekend that prime minister Mark Carney’s proposed reforms are “worse” than former prime minister Stephen Harper’s actions in terms of rolling back environmental protections.

“This goes beyond what Harper proposed when he was in power, yes, that’s true,” he told the Toronto Star on Friday . Other anonymous backbench Liberal MPs quoted in the piece expressed hope that their government would backtrack on certain proposals.

The “discussion paper” presented Friday afternoon was applauded by the industry and business leaders but was slammed by environmentalists and Indigenous groups.

It proposes among other things to reduce the time of federal reviews for major projects to no more than one year, to create “economic zones” where projects would be deemed pre-approved and to allow early construction to start before an impact assessment is made.

Critics have said that those proposed changes are significantly weakening environmental protections and could have a detrimental effect on endangered species in the country.

The proposal is subject to a 30-day consultation, after which the government is expected to table legislation before the end of the parliamentary session in June.

It is however unclear if Carney’s majority Liberals will be rushing to adopt the legislation before the House of Commons leaves for the summer on June 19 or if it will take a bit more time to hold parliamentary committee hearings and adopt the bill later this year.

Speaking to Radio-Canada on Monday , Guilbeault said that he shares the government’s objective to make the current regulatory system better, but that the proposal goes too far.

“I think we’re using a sledgehammer where we would need a scalpel,” he said in French.

Guilbeault served as environment minister under Justin Trudeau from 2021 to 2025. He lost the portfolio when Carney came into office, serving as minister of Canadian identity and culture and Quebec lieutenant until he resigned over Carney’s energy deal with Alberta.

Since leaving cabinet, the Montreal Liberal MP has been more vocal about his criticism of the government, penning open letters and granting media interviews to warn against the rollback of environmental measures that he implemented as environment minister.

Despite that, he said he has been still trying to influence certain recent decisions in the background. For instance, he said he worked with the prime minister’s office on the $500 million in net new funding for international climate finance in the spring economic update.

Guilbeault told Radio-Canada that certain ministers had approached him to seek his views after he criticized the proposed regulatory reforms on major projects.

Asked if there are any red lines that the government should not cross, Guilbeault replied with a “no” but said he would be looking very closely at the final version of the memorandum of understanding Carney is expected to sign with Alberta within days.

“If we accept the proposals made by Alberta, it will be impossible for Canada to attain the objectives of 2030, 2035 and even to attain carbon neutrality by 2050,” he said in French.

Radio host Alec Castonguay asked whether Guilbeault would be attentive to what will be said and done in the coming weeks and take a decision on his future at that moment.

Guilbeault said it was “probably” a good way to think about his internal deliberations.

Speaking to Radio-Canada TV host Gérald Fillion later in the day, Guilbeault seemed to have readjusted his answer about his political future, saying that he has learned to not answer hypothetical questions.

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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