Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault mostly ducked questions about his government’s lack of prescribed burns at Jasper National Park before the devastating forest fire that took out a third of the town and cost nearly a billion dollars.

Guilbeault served as a witness in a parliamentary committee hearing investigating the federal government’s preparation for and response to the devastating fire that burned down 33,000 hectares of one of Canada’s best national parks.

Opposition MPs in the committee, particularly Conservatives, grilled the Environment minister over what they claimed was a lack of preparation for something that experts had warned about for years. Since 2017, experts told the Liberal Government that a catastrophic fire in Jasper was inevitable, and not a question of if, but when.

Asked when he was told this, Guilbuealt said he’d have to look at his calendar. 

Emails obtained from Minister Guilbeault’s office reveal discussions about “cancelling planned prescribed burns in Western Canada” just months before the wildfire. 

The Climate Change Minister got into a heated exchange with Conservative MP Gerard Deltell, and provided answers in French to him, despite answering questions in English to other MPs who asked him softball questions and attempted to dump the blame onto Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

“What have you got to say about this memo?” asked Deltell. “Why are your staff talking about cancelling prescribed burns for the sake of media optics?” 

Guilbeault avoids giving specifics

Guilbeault avoided answering, deferring to Andrew Campbell from Parks Canada.

Campbell said they didn’t merely “do nothing,” but chose to do mechanical removal of some of the dead trees, instead of prescribed burns.  

Throughout the heated 18-minute hearing, Guilbeault mostly avoided providing answers to questions, often taking his time to attack the Conservatives over their stance on climate change.  

At one point, Guilbeault said that he can’t control the weather. 

A number of social media users found this defense particularly ironic, given the fact the minister regularly insists that his government’s ever-increasing carbon tax is needed to reduce extreme weather events.