BREAKING: Guilbeault stepping down from cabinet after Ottawa and Alberta sign new pipeline deal
OTTAWA — Former environment minister Steven Guilbeault is stepping down from cabinet, but staying on as a Liberal MP, after his government signed a memorandum of understanding with Alberta to build a new oil pipeline towards the West Coast.
Guilbeault, who currently holds the portfolio of Canadian Identity and Culture, is a long-time climate activist. Earlier on Thursday, a source close to him said he would be taking the time to study the deal with Alberta in detail and decide which decision would be best for him.
The source, speaking on a not-for-attribution basis because they were not authorized to discuss these matters publicly, said Guilbeault was struggling with the feeling he could be more useful to the climate cause and to Canada by sitting around the cabinet table than by stepping down.
“He’s ready to make a lot of compromises,” said the source earlier in the day. “That remains true even today, even when it is more difficult.”
Guilbeault had a “long” and “candid” conversation with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday, according to the source who could not disclose the contents of the conversation. While a source close to him signalled to other media outlets on Wednesday that he was not resigning over the deal with Alberta, it appears his tune has changed.
“He wants to be sure to make the right decision,” added the source.
Guilbeault was not seen in the House of Commons on Thursday, and some of his Quebec Liberal colleagues would not say if they expected him to still be part of the caucus by the end of the day. Carney did not directly answer when asked by a reporter in Calgary after signing the deal whether he would be able to keep Guilbeault in his cabinet.
Guilbeault endorsed Carney during the Liberal leadership race in January for his work in the green energy transition and the role of the financial sector in fighting climate change. Guilbeault also stood by Carney’s side when he axed the consumer carbon tax in his first act as prime minister, despite being a staunch defender of the tax under Justin Trudeau.
After the spring election, when Carney opened the door to more pipeline construction, Guilbeault opined that Canada should instead optimize the use of its existing pipelines . He claimed that less than half of the Trans Mountain pipeline’s capacity is being used.
He was also known to be against the Trans Mountain expansion but said that he could do more to fight climate change inside government than outside it.
Guilbeault’s climate activism started at a young age. His biography on the government’s website notes that, at the age of five, he climbed a tree to protect it from real estate developers. In 2001, he was famously arrested for scaling the CN Tower in Toronto to unfurl a giant sign accusing Canada and U.S. President George W. Bush of being “climate killers.”
He also co-founded Équiterre, the largest environmental organization in Quebec, and served as its senior director from 2008 to 2018. He ultimately went on to run for Trudeau’s team in the 2019 election and has been the Montreal MP of Laurier—Ste-Marie ever since.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he has known Guilbeault for the last 20 years. They were both in climate activism circles.
“We cannot blame Steven for not having tried until the end to change Canada, that he thought was a bit too oil-focused,” he wrote on X.
National Post calevesque@postmedia.com
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