OTTAWA — Former environment minister Steven Guilbeault is expected to announce Wednesday that he will resign as a Liberal MP, according to three government sources.
One senior government official with direct knowledge of Guilbeault’s plans said the Montreal MP is expected to step down after Parliament breaks for the summer. A second government source said they understand Guilbeault will announce his intention to resign, and that he plans to stay in the Liberal caucus until he officially vacates his seat. A third source also confirmed that Guilbeault is expected to announce his resignation.
Guilbeault’s anticipated departure comes amid speculation about the prominent Quebec environmentalist’s political future, and in the wake of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s climate policy concessions to Alberta and its oil and gas sector.
Guilbeault has not responded to requests for comment from the Star in recent days.
With his expected departure, the Liberal government’s thin majority in the House of Commons will grow more precarious, especially as his resignation comes as North Vancouver Liberal MP — and fellow former environment minister — Jonathan Wilkinson prepares to leave to become Canada’s ambassador to the European Union.
The Liberals currently have 174 seats in the House of Commons, and need 172 to hold a majority.
Appearing Tuesday afternoon on CTV’s Power Play, Green MP Elizabeth May said she spoke to Guilbeault for half an hour earlier in the day, and that it is Guilbeault’s “own announcement to make. A few tears were shed, for sure.”
Noting that they have been “friends for decades,” May said, “I would have obviously loved to have him join the Green Party, but I would have loved to have him stay in Parliament as a backbencher, doing his best from the inside, or as an Independent or what have you.”
Pointing to Guilbeault, as well as the anticipated exits of fellow Liberal MPs Wilkinson and Nate Erskine-Smith, May wondered “if an environmentalist and a climate activist can feel comfortable in the Liberal caucus. I wonder, as time goes by, if we’ll see others.”
First elected in 2019, Guilbeault served as Justin Trudeau’s heritage minister before taking on the environment portfolio from 2021 to March 2025, when Carney took office as prime minister after winning the Liberal leadership.
As environment minister, Guilbeault championed the Trudeau government’s consumer and industrial carbon pricing systems, with plans for increases so that greenhouse gas emissions would cost $170 per tonne by 2030. Guilbeault also oversaw the creation of climate policies including a regulatory cap on emissions from the heavy-polluting oil and gas sector, national clean electricity regulations and mandatory sales of zero-emission vehicles.
Carney cancelled the consumer carbon price last March, and shuffled Guilbeault to the culture portfolio. Guilbeault resigned from cabinet in November over the government’s accord with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that saw Ottawa scrap the emissions cap for the oil and gas industry, suspend incoming clean electricity regulations, and weaken rules to drop emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane in Alberta.
The Carney government also offered to potentially support a major new oil pipeline that Alberta is proposing to run through British Columbia to the Pacific coast, as it tries to increase oilsands exports as part of its pro-development agenda that is meant to reduce Canada’s reliance on the United States.
Earlier this month, Carney and Smith inked an “implementation agreement” that aims to clear the way for construction of the proposed pipeline as early as September 2027. At the same time, the federal government agreed to weaken the future industrial carbon price in Alberta and possibly across the country, which will now only rise to an overall “headline” price of $140 per tonne in 2040.
In the days since, speculation about Guilbeault’s political future has spiked on Parliament Hill, with Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers fielding question after question about the former cabinet minister.
Guilbeault was not in the House of Commons on Tuesday for question period and didn’t attend the foreign affairs committee where he is a member.
News of Guilbeault’s possible resignation was met with disappointment by his colleagues.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly said that while Guilbeault is her “good friend,” she believes the government is on the right path.
“I have worked a lot to bring him into politics and he will always be a good friend,” Joly said ahead of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. “I also think that I’m part of much more the environmentalist part of the Liberal party and cabinet, but I also think that what we’ve done with the (Alberta memorandum of understanding) makes sense.”
Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski saying he hopes the former environment minister stays to make his case.
“I really want him to stay. I think he’s a great guy. I think I’d rather have him in caucus saying what he thinks,” Powlowski said outside the House of Commons.
Calgary MP Corey Hogan said he was unaware of Guilbeault’s plans, but believes the Liberals are striking the right balance in their current climate approach.
“The Liberal party has always been a balancing of interests,” he said. “We have with the prime minister a really strong climate plan. It’s a plan that’s designed to attract capital to green the economy by building the next economy.”
Smith, who has lashed out at Guilbeault and blamed the Trudeau government’s climate policies for fuelling separatism in Alberta, was asked Tuesday to comment on reports that he would resign.
“I wish him well in his future endeavours,” she said.
With files from Tonda MacCharles
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