The end of the road?
Last week, radical environment minister and former Green Peace activist Steven Guilbeault announced the latest in his climate crusade: the federal government will no longer fund the building of roads in Canada.
No, that’s not a joke. It’s not a satire. It’s what he said—and while he has since sought to “clarify” his comments (without much success), he has yet to back down from what he said.
“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 added that “the analysis we have done is that the [highway] network is perfectly adequate to respond to the needs we have.”
Really?
Any Manitobans out there feel our roads are adequate in this province?
It’s an absurd notion.
Canada’s road infrastructure has failed to keep up with population growth and in many parts of the country is in serious, even dangerous disrepair.
We are so accustomed to poor and inadequate roads we assume it is normal. Not so if you look just south of the border.
The typical US state—let alone interstate—highway south of the border has greater capacity than sections of the Trans Canada Highway.
It is also ironic that Guilbeault made this speech to a group of public transit advocates, as one of the major impediments to better public transit (and by extension, increased usage thereof) in Canada is poor city planning and road infrastructure.
Despite these disconcerting realities, this government is pulling the plug on roads spending.
Why?
To further promote their radical and prohibitively expensive (so-called) “green” agenda.
Guilbeault went on to discuss his—and by extension the Liberal Government’s—vision of a utopian de-industrialized (and largely stationary) Canadian future.
According to Guilbeault, Canadians should consider living in more densely packed neighborhoods and taking transit, biking, or walking more—as if those were really options for folks who live outside of downtown Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver.
It’s not enough for these Liberals and their costly coalition partners in the NDP to cripple Canadians with their carbon tax scam.
It’s not enough for them to mandate Canadians spend 40% more for a new electric vehicle.
It’s not enough for them to kill our main economic driver, the energy sector, all in the name of saving us from an impending “climate disaster”.
This climate alarmism act—and it is an act—is wearing thin for increasingly cash-strapped Canadians. It should also be noted that all their actions to date have made zero impact on national or global emissions. Minister Guilbeault says the government does NOT measure the annual amount of emissions that are directly reduced by federal carbon pricing. It’s only a punishment-based political policy, apparently not worth measuring.
Now, they want to literally ensure Canadians who drive are coming to the “end of the road.”
Of course, it won’t actually happen.
Like their Carbon Tax scam, their EV battery debacle, and their crippling new net-zero electricity grid rules for provinces, this latest attempt to force Canadians to stop driving will fail.
Whether as the result of political opposition, public opinion, or backing down of their own volition, (or a combination of all three) the government will not be able to follow through with such a ridiculous idea. All it does is show just how radical and out of touch this Government is with
Canadians.
I have been an MP for nearly 11 years, and I never thought I’d see the day when I campaigned on “our party will build roads” but here we are.
And we will.
Commonsense Conservatives will ensure infrastructure dollars are kept in Canada, are actually used for infrastructure, and go to projects that benefit Canadians.
We will keep Canadians on the road, and, for the first time in eight years, get them moving forward.