As she announced Monday she wouldn’t run for re-election, Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna made it clear that in her heart, she’d never really left the environment portfolio she held for her first four years in office.

“We made massive investments in things that changed our lives, but most importantly, that reduced emissions and tackled climate change,” McKenna said, imagining a Canadian father of the future explaining to his daughter how a subway got built after the COVID-19 pandemic.

She wants to see her own three children more, she said at a news conference in her riding in Ottawa Centre, and to spend all her working time on climate change.

The sun beat down as she spoke near a footbridge over the Rideau Canal that the federal government helped pay for. A listless breeze moved the humidity around. In B.C. the day before, the southern village of Lytton set a record for the hottest day ever recorded in Canada. Environment Canada warned that dangerous temperatures could persist for days. 

Also Monday, Natural Resources Canada published a 734-page tome on adapting to climate change that reported Canada’s infrastructure is at high risk. Partly because it wasn’t built for warmer, wetter weather, but also because many of the critical things we use every day—from bridges to hospitals to power grids—are just old and rickety.

The Liberals say they’ve allocated over $81 billion in infrastructure funding since 2016. That’s off the $15-billion-a-year pace they’ll have to average for a plan that promises to spend $180 billion over 12 years.

McKenna wouldn’t be drawn on why building things is proving so difficult.

“We have, in my department, hundreds and hundreds of projects that are very important, of course, that we’re doing due diligence on. So I actually think we’ve made amazing progress,” she said.

McKenna’s departure opens a seat for former central-bank governor Mark Carney, if he’s looking to run for the Liberals. Ottawa Centre would be attractive ground for a polished civil servant turned Brookfield vice-chair who moved back to the city following his stint leading the Bank of England.

McKenna rejected the idea she’d been nudged out. But, she said, Carney understands the connection between the environment and the economy much the way she does, and if he enters politics, “I think he can make a big difference.”