Guilbeault’s road funding remarks sent staff scrambling, emails show

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s controversial remarks on federal road funding had “quite the blowback” that sent department staff hunting for information, internal emails reveal.

The emails, obtained by Global News under access to information legislation, show how Infrastructure Canada officials worked to respond after Guilbeault’s Feb. 12 comments that Ottawa would “stop investing in new road infrastructure.”

Guilbeault has since clarified his remarks, but was summoned to appear at the House of Commons transport committee to explain them further. He is scheduled to do so on Thursday.

“Pretty sure we are in line with what he is saying now on it,” one official said on Feb. 14, the day Guilbeault clarified his remarks.

“Quite the blowback.”

The communications package obtained by Global News contains two days’ worth of emails among staff at Infrastructure Canada – the department responsible for federal public infrastructure policy.

Between Feb. 14 and 15, the officials contacted several individuals both within and outside the department on how best to respond to media requests on Guilbeault’s comments.

According to quotes published in the Montreal Gazette, Guilbeault told a crowd in the city on Feb. 12 that Ottawa won’t be funding any projects that “enlarge the road network.”

“The analysis we have done is that the network is perfectly adequate to respond to the needs we have,” he said.

Two days later in the nation’s capital, Guilbeault said “of course we’re funding roads.”

“We have programs to fund roads, but we have said — and maybe I should have been more specific in the past — is that we don’t have funds for large projects like the Trosième lien,” he said on Feb. 14.

The Trosième lien, or third line, refers to a highway