The road to hell will truly be paved with ill-intent — or not at all — if a leading Liberal cabinet minister has his way. It’s not enough to ban internal combustion engines, keep oil and gas in the ground and force all Canadians to drive electric vehicles. Now federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault wants governments at all levels to stop building the roads to drive them on.Speaking at a transit conference in Montreal on Tuesday, Guilbeault said money that in the past would be spent on asphalt and concrete should be spent on projects to fight climate change instead.More roads and interchanges inevitably lead to more automobiles which inevitably leads to a self-fulfilling cycle of more road building and more cars — electric or otherwise, he said..“Our government has made the decision to stop investing in new road infrastructure.“Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.“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,” he said.“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.”.The Liberal government spent $400 million to encourage walking, cycling and the use of wheelchairs, scooters, e-bikes, roller blades, snowshoes and cross-country skis..Guilbeault said overestimating the potential for electricity-powered transportation to solve climate change and other environmental issues would be “an error, a false utopia that will let us down over the long term.”“We must stop thinking that electric cars will solve all our problems,” he said via live video feed from Ottawa, to public transit advocacy group Trajectoire Québec. He said the Trudeau government has put up $30 billion to develop public transit since 2016, and has announced the country’s first annual financing program for public transit projects to allocate $3 billion per year for projects starting in 2026.The Liberal government also spent $400 million to encourage walking, cycling and the use of wheelchairs, scooters, e-bikes, roller blades, snowshoes and cross-country skis. Other projects include multi-use pathways, bike lanes, footbridges across roadways, new lighting, signage to encourage so-called ‘active transportation’..In his remarks, Guilbeault said municipal governments have to brace for EVs by doing more than simply installing charging stations.“The solution to mobility will not consist only of electrification. Electrification is a component, but it’s not the only thing. There is the question of urban planning that is hyper important,” he said. “If you are a decision maker and you decide to build a government institution far from public transit systems, then by default you are inciting people to use their cars to access that public service. All of our planning practices have to be coherent with these mobility objectives, for the reduction of the ecological footprint of transportation and of greenhouse emissions.”
