The caquist leader François Legault put on his prime minister’s clothes on Saturday to take stock of the passage of storm Fiona, which “hit hard” in the Magdalen Islands.
Although the portrait of the situation is still incomplete, Mr. Legault affirmed that the government will compensate all the losses which are not covered by the insurance of the disaster victims.
“If it is not insured by regular insurance, we will make up the difference,” he explained during a press conference.
In addition to the Magdalen Islands, Gaspésie and the Lower North Shore are also on Fiona’s route.
Without minimizing the impacts, Mr. Legault noted that the weather system did not pass directly over the archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
“It passed right next to the islands, he said at a press conference. It’s not as bad as we thought last night but, all the same, it hit hard and it will continue to hit hard. »
Winds of more than 100 km / h began to blow on Saturday night in the Magdalen Islands where they were to continue Saturday afternoon. The storm will then reach the Lower North Shore near Natashquan.
It was still impossible, Saturday noon, to know the extent of the damage, said the Prime Minister.
“It is too early to have an assessment of the damage,” he said.
Deputy Minister Associate for Civil Security Katia Petit said the waves caused by the storm could cause erosion and land subsidence while the wind affects the electrical network. Nearly 8,000 subscribers were without electricity on Saturday morning.
“We know roughly what is going on but the detail, the infrastructures affected, we have none of that, she said. We will be able to assess the situation a little later, we are really in operation. »
Climatic changes
Deputy Premier and Minister of Civil Security Geneviève Guilbault will be on site as soon as possible. Mr. Legault had already planned to go there on Monday as part of his electoral tour.
The Coalition avenir Québec had temporarily suspended its campaign, Friday evening, with the approach of Fiona. The tour resumed on Saturday afternoon. A militant rally scheduled for Saturday in Terrebonne has, however, been canceled.
Mr. Legault noted that storm Fiona is part of a succession of severe weather phenomena.
“We can think that there is a link with climate change,” he said.
Mr. Legault estimated that his Plan for a green economy, announced by his government in April, will meet the needs of municipalities facing climate change.
Of the 7 billion budget of the plan, a sum of 917 million is planned for the municipalities and Mr. Legault has shown himself open to doing more.
A “brutal reminder” according to Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois
The spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, fears other “extreme weather events” even if Quebecers intensify the fight against climate change. “It’s brewing in the Magdalen Islands, then unfortunately it will brew in other places in Quebec in the coming years,” he warned Saturday afternoon.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois resumed his campaign activities after meeting with Jean-Philippe Déraspe, who is running for the votes in the riding of Îles-de-la-Madeleine under the banner of QS. “He said to me: ‘Gabriel, I’m just asking you one thing, you need to talk about climate change,'” he said when his campaign bus stopped at a stop on the edge of Highway 20.
“GND” welcomed the decision of the Prime Minister, François Legault, to establish a program aimed at compensating the victims of the storm Fiona. “The Government of Quebec must be there to help people, to help companies that are going to have losses, that’s for sure, but we also have to think long term,” he said.
QS proposes the establishment of a Climate Emergency Fund, into which a supportive government would inject $1.5 billion over four years. We must “invest in our infrastructure to limit the damage upstream”, pleads the left-wing party.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois is sorry to see Mr. Legault flatly refusing to support, to the tune of $2 billion per year, the efforts of Quebec municipalities to adapt their infrastructures to climate change. “The best placed to answer these questions are the municipalities themselves, it is the regions themselves who know the vulnerabilities on their territory”, argued the contender for the post of Prime Minister.
With Marco Belair-Cirino