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Government of Canada will no longer fund new road expansion projects for cars: Environment Minister

Kenneth Chan
Kenneth Chan
|
Feb 15 2024, 12:04 am
Government of Canada will no longer fund new road expansion projects for cars: Environment Minister
Highway 1 in Vancouver/Burnaby (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive) and federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault (Steven Guilbeault/Facebook).

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal federal government will no longer provide funding to municipal and provincial governments to invest in expanded road infrastructure for vehicles, but it will continue investing in active transportation for pedestrians and cyclists as well as public transit.

That was the strong suggestion that Steven Guilbeault, the federal minister of environment and climate change, made during a Montreal public transit conference on Monday, according to the Montreal Gazette.

“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,” said Guilbeault during the event, as quoted by the newspaper.

“The analysis we have done is that the network is perfectly adequate to respond to the needs we have. And thanks to a mix of investment in active and public transit, and in territorial planning and densification, we can very well achieve our goals of economic, social, and human development without more enlargement of the road network.”

Guilbeault said about one-quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions currently come from transportation, and suggested that there is currently an overestimation and a “false utopia” that the transition to battery-electric vehicles will address climate change. He suggested that adding more roads and new lanes would only increase the use of private vehicles.

Earlier today, Guilbeault tried to partially backtrack and clarify his contentious statements by suggesting that the federal government would no longer fund “large projects” such as Troisième lien, which is a new additional highway link between Quebec City and Levis across the St. Lawrence River.

This would mean the federal government under Trudeau’s Liberals would no longer provide federal funding to help support the cost of building major road expansion projects spearheaded by provincial and municipal governments.

Prior to entering federal office in 2019, Guilbeault was a longtime environmental activist, including serving as a director of Greenpeace. He became the minister of environment and climate change in 2021, after previously serving as the minister of Canadian heritage.

A number of prominent government leaders across the country have since criticized Guilbeault’s position.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford shared that he is “gobsmacked” by the comment made by Guilbeault.

“A federal minister said they 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,” wrote Ford in a post on X.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith suggested in a post on X that the federal minister needs to “return to the real world.”

“So now our environment minister wants to cut federal funding for roads… because we should all just walk more. 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,” she wrote.

Mark Strahl, the federal MP for the riding of Chilliwack-Hope BC, and the Conservative shadow minister for transport, told media today that he believes this “would be the first government anywhere, at any time, that has ever said they’re not going to build roads for the people who need them.”

“We need our roads to get our goods from our farmers to market. We need our roads to get our kids to school. We need our roads to get our workers to work. And this is a government that’s already taxed away the ability of people to afford to buy a new car, and now they’re saying that they’re going to take away building roads in this country. I think it’s an extreme position from an extreme environment minister,” said Strahl.

“We need to invest. We need to build the things that Canadians need to live in the type of country we live in. I think of my own riding, which is 100 km from Vancouver. You need to drive the car. You need to take the Trans Canada Highway, and we need the senior levels of government to be there to continue to build these important connecting infrastructure that Canadians simply need. This isn’t an option, this isn’t something that many Canadians can do without.”

And Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre was even more pointed: “Trudeau’s radical carbon tax minister now wants to get rid of roads. He won’t be happy until we’re living back in mud huts.”

Trudeau’s Liberals have also caught some criticism in response to their announcement today over the rebranding of the “Climate Action Incentive Repayment” as the “Canada Carbon Rebate,” which is a quarterly rebate to Canadians to help offset some of the living cost impacts of the federal government’s carbon tax.

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