Guilbeault to resign as an MP over Carney government’s climate policies

Playing null of undefined

MP Steven Guilbeault considering leaving Liberals, sources say

'He will always be a good friend': Industry minister comments on Guilbeault’s possible resignation

OTTAWA - Former environment and climate change minister Steven Guilbeault will resign as a member of Parliament, CTV News has learned.

Guilbeault, who spoke to CTV News, says he will tell the Liberal caucus about his decision on Wednesday.

This is a breaking news update. Previous version of the story follows below.

Former environment and climate change minister Steven Guilbeault is considering resigning from the Liberal caucus over his climate policy concerns, four sources in the federal government tell CTV News.

The sources pointed to Guilbeault’s disagreement with the federal government’s rollback of Trudeau-era climate policies and the most recent iteration of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Alberta aimed at building a new pipeline.

The sources also say Guilbeault is considering remaining as an MP, but sitting as an Independent, and likely would not run in the next election.

CTV News has reached out to Guilbeault’s office but has not received a response by the time of publication. Sources close to the former minister who spoke to him Monday say he wasn’t 100 per cent decided yet.

On his way into a cabinet meeting Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Mark Carney didn’t reply when asked by the Globe and Mail’s Marieke Walsh if he expected Guilbeault to resign.

CTV News posed the same question to Industry Minister Melanie Joly, who said: “I’m a good friend of Steven’s, I worked a lot to bring him into politics, and he will always be a good friend.”

“But we’re also dealing with an energy crisis right now, which is affecting the price of gas across the country,” Joly also said. “Things are happening thousands of kilometres from where we are. So, in these circumstances we need to be able to protect our energy sovereignty and be able to support our allies.”

Climate policy rollbacks

Guilbeault is not alone in his concern about climate policy rollbacks.

More than a dozen Liberal MPs wrote to the prime minister in April to express worry over changes to methane and clean electricity regulations in Alberta, moving the $130-per-tonne effective price on carbon target beyond 2030, as well as any possible public money going toward a new pipeline.

Sources close to Guilbeault say he was disheartened that the changes agreed upon in the MOU could put the federal government’s 2050 climate targets out of reach. According to analysis from the Canadian Climate Institute, the MOU and corresponding rollback of the oil and gas emissions cap, and aforementioned regulations, risk those 2050 targets.

Speculation over Guilbeault’s political future ramped up after Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith agreed earlier this month to elements of an energy deal that could see construction of an oil pipeline begin as early as the fall 2027 if specific conditions are met.

In November, Guilbeault resigned from Carney’s cabinet just hours after Carney and Smith signed the initial MOU. He had been serving as minister of Canadian identity and culture at the time.

In a letter posted to social media announcing his resignation from cabinet last fall, Guilbeault stated that while he understands the prime minster’s efforts in the face of “profound disruption,” he remains “one of those for whom environmental issues must remain front and centre.”

Then, in an interview with CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos in, Guilbeault said the energy deal makes it “impossible” for the federal government to reach its 2030 emissions targets.

Guilbeault previously served as environment and climate change minister from 2021 to 2025 under former prime minister Justin Trudeau. Before becoming an MP in the 2019 federal election, Guilbeault was a longtime environmental activist who worked for Greenpeace for a decade and helped found Equiterre, a major environmental advocacy group in Quebec.

The previous Liberal government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, 45 to 50 per cent by 2035, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, but the Carney government has been far less explicit about those commitments.

Asked on her way into the cabinet meeting about Guilbeault’s potential resignation, Environment and Climate Change Minister, Julie Dabrusin said the Liberal caucus “cares deeply about the environment, fighting climate change, and also about how we’re going to build our country in this moment.”

And, asked how she is dealing with any dissent among caucus members over environmental policies, Dabrusin said there are “a range of opinions,” but that it “makes (them) stronger.”

A February 2026 report from the Canadian Climate institute concluded Canada is on track to be roughly just halfway to the 2030 emissions reductions targets.

Earlier this month, Carney said Canadians can expect an update on the Liberal government’s climate plans.

Green Party leader calls out PM Carney

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who voted to support the Carney government’s federal budget last fall after Guilbeault convinced her to, says she admires the Quebec MP and hopes the news is “not true.”

“Can you be a Liberal MP and care about climate and do both at the same time? Can you be a Liberal MP and care about nature in this country and biodiversity? I hope the answer to that is yes, because I hope he stays, even if he decides to sit as an independent,” May said in an interview with CTV News.

May also sharply criticized Carney’s climate policies.

“He is fundamentally less an economist and more a banker,” May said. “I don’t find that there’s anything left, whatever it was that I thought Mark Carney cared about relating to the climate crisis. I no longer find any traces of it in his policies.”

With files from CTV News’ Senior Political Correspondent Mike Le Couteur