Former environment and climate change minister Steven Guilbeault is pushing back on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s assessment that a new pipeline will be profitable for all Canadians.
“I respectfully disagree with the prime minister,” Guilbeault said in an interview with CTV News Channel on Friday. “Yes, there is money coming from the TMX pipeline, but for this to be profitable for Canadians, this project will have to yield profits year after year after year for the next 34 years.”
On Thursday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Carney announced plans to build a new pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbia coast as a private-public partnership. The pipeline would follow the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, and the Alberta government would partner with federally owned Trans Mountain Corporation and Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline for the build.
Alberta’s submission says the ownership structure has yet to be nailed down. Trans Mountain Corp., meanwhile, said in a statement that the initial partnership has Ottawa and Smith’s government as the majority interest holders.
Speaking to reporters at the announcement in Calgary on Thursday, Carney defended the project and pointed to the economic success of the existing Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX).
“TMX, de-risked up and running. Now is very profitable,” Carney said. “It’s returning real cash to Canadians that is supporting social programs, supporting other things.”
In 2018, the federal government purchased TMX from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion to save it from cancellation. The expansion project, which was delayed for years and billions of dollars over budget, began operating in May 2024. Since then, it has brought in billions of dollars in revenue.
But Guilbeault, who announced in May that he will be resigning as a Liberal MP over his growing concerns with Carney’s climate policies, said the project is not profitable “from a private sector perspective.”
“If it was, then the federal government and provincial government wouldn’t need to invest the bulk of the money for this project to come forward,” Guilbeault said.
Climate change ‘no longer the priority’
After he announced his intention to step down, Guilbeault told CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos that he was not the only caucus member who is upset with the Liberals’ environmental policy shift since last year’s federal election.
Speaking to CTV News Channel on Friday, Guilbeault reiterated that stance and rebuffed against using U.S. President Donald Trump’s election and tariffs as reasons to change climate policies.
“This idea that we have to scrap our climate change plan that we had committed to implementing during the last election campaign, because quote-unquote ‘things have changed,’ simply doesn’t hold the test of facts,” Guilbeault said.
The former environment minister also said fighting climate change is “no longer the priority it was under (former)prime minister (Justin) Trudeau.”
“We will be lucky if we hit a third of our emissions target that we were set to hit under prime minister Trudeau. We were very close to getting where we were supposed to be by 2030,” he added.
Earlier this week, Carney conceded for the first time that the country’s greenhouse gas emissions will be “higher in the next few years” than projected under the previous government’s plan.
“In my judgement, that plan was not sustainable over the long term,” Carney said in the 17-minute long video posted to his YouTube page on Tuesday.
Trudeau was elected in 2015 on a promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent of 2005 levels by the year 2030, and in 2021, the Liberals went even further, promising to reduce emissions by 40 to 45 per cent by that same target date.
‘Been there, done that’
The pipeline project comes as Alberta is set to hold a referendum on Oct. 19, and one of the questions will ask Albertans whether they want to remain in Canada or hold a second binding vote on separation in the future.
Guilbeault meanwhile, was a polarizing figure in the western province during his tenure as environment and climate change minster in the Trudeau government from 2021 to 2025.
When asked if a pipeline will help quell separatist concerns, Guilbeault said “been there, done that,” pointing to the federal government’s purchase of TMX in 2018.
“We bought a pipeline in 2018 and the following election, we lost all our seats in Alberta. We lost our seat in Saskatchewan,” Guilbeault said.
“To think that by doing the same thing all over again, we will end up with significantly different results baffles my mind. I simply don’t understand,” he later added.
While Guilbeault acknowledged the importance of addressing the separatist movement, he also said there needs to be a balance.
“We have to be careful that by giving so much to Alberta, we don’t fuel the separatist movement in Quebec where there is also an election coming up in October,” Guilbeault said. “I’m not always sure that these two things are put in the balance in the same way when the government is looking at these issues.”
Guilbeault is expected to officially step down as an MP at the end of the August, after which Carney will need to call a byelection for the Quebec riding of Laurier-Sainte Marie.
With files from CTV News’ Spencer Van Dyk, Cassidy McMackon and Michael Franklin
