Prime Minister François Legault’s office believes that environmental groups “whine” by deploring not having been consulted by Quebec in anticipation of the United Nations climate conference (COP26), which will open Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland.
“Quebec is No. 1 for the least amount of GHG in North America. The only State with a costed plan to reach its target. Aid [New York] and the [Massachusetts] to reduce their [sic] GES with its own electricity. For Bonin [de Greenpeace] et Cie, it will never be enough. And there, they whine ”, wrote on the social network Twitter Stéphane Gobeil, special adviser to the Prime Minister.
Press reports Friday that the Quebec environmental community is surprised that the Prime Minister’s office did not see fit to consult it before going to COP26, an absence of dialogue which also detracts from the approach of François Legault’s predecessors .
The expertise of groups specializing in the environment can prove to be “very concrete” help for the government in a high-level meeting like the COP26, underlined in particular Geneviève Paul, director general of the Center québécois du droit de l’environnement (CQDE). .
The Prime Minister’s office has defended itself for not consulting environmental groups by relying on the Climate Change Advisory Committee it has set up, which itself consults with these groups, said Ewan Sauves, the Prime Minister’s press secretary.
However, this committee does not advise the Prime Minister, but the Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Benoit Charette, retorts Marc-André Viau, director of government relations at Equiterre.
“We have good relations with Charette’s office [et ceux d’autres ministres], but that would take a more sustained dialogue with that of the Prime Minister, because there are obviously things that could work better if there were a dialogue with the PM’s office and not only with the ministries, ”he says. to be worth.
François Legault’s press secretary, Ewan Sauves, did not respond to questions from Press on the release of the Prime Minister’s special adviser.
“We don’t have to be embarrassed about our environmental record,” he said instead.
More details to come.