(Ottawa) Only one environmental study must be conducted to evaluate the hydroelectric dam projects proposed by Quebec Premier François Legault during his second term. And this assessment can very well be carried out by the competent authorities in Quebec, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), affirms the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
According to Mr. Poilievre, it would be futile for Ottawa to conduct a parallel study to do essentially the same work as the BAPE. At best, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) will come to the same conclusions. At worst, the federal agency will unduly delay projects that would be beneficial for the environment at a time when Quebec wants to accelerate the electrification of transport, he argued in an interview with La Presse.
Mr. Poilievre, who undertook a two-day tour of Quebec on Thursday which took him to Quebec City, La Pocatière and Montreal, unhesitatingly endorses the arguments of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) of François Legault, who, after having promised to launch new hydroelectric dam projects during the election campaign, who maintained that the BAPE should be the only one to evaluate them.
In its strategic plan, Hydro-Québec calculates that it will be necessary to add approximately 100 terawatt hours (TWh) of new energies in Québec by 2050. Concretely, this means an increase of 50% compared to the current level.
“Premier Legault wants more dams for Hydro-Québec. He says we shouldn’t do the same environmental study twice. But the red tape that Justin Trudeau has imposed will delay the construction of these dams. This will make it more difficult and more expensive to produce electricity for electric cars, for example,” he said.
“If Quebec is doing the study to guarantee that the environment will be protected, it is not necessary for the federal government to do exactly the same study. It’ll just double the wait time while doing nothing for the environment.”
Mr. Poilievre said he had a telephone conversation with François Legault on this subject last week. “I told him that I will not double the same studies. And I recognize that to fight climate change, we need more green electricity,” he said.
By decreeing that Quebec can very well carry out the environmental study itself for such projects, Mr. Poilievre continues to embody a creed dear to the Conservative Party, namely the decentralization of powers to the provinces, as was done in the past other Conservative leaders, including former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
During the election campaign, the Trudeau government was circumspect about the role of the federal government in these projects. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s office, however, reminded Ottawa of its obligations under the Impact Assessment Act passed by the Liberal government in 2019. This federal law stipulates that projects such as the construction of a dam are automatically subject to a federal assessment if they require the development of a reservoir that exceeds 15 km2 “the average annual surface area of the natural water body”.
Asked about this two days after the October 3 elections in Quebec, Minister Guilbeault was categorical. “Under the new federal impact assessment regime, a dam project, like any other major development project, would be subject to an environmental assessment. […] So if there is going to be a federal assessment, there is going to be a federal assessment,” he told reporters.
In the process, the Minister did not rule out the holding of a joint assessment. “Certainly, it is possible to do this jointly, but I cannot delegate my legislative obligation to another level of government. »
During the campaign, François Legault also demanded new powers from Ottawa in terms of immigration in order to counter the decline of French. His federal counterpart Justin Trudeau dismissed this option, saying that Quebec already has all the tools it needs in this area to welcome French-speaking immigrants.
Unlike Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Conservative leader does not double-lock the door. “We are listening. Of course, the Liberal government has demonstrated its incredible incompetence in managing the Department of Immigration. I think Quebec wants to make up for the labor shortage while protecting the interests of Quebeckers. So I’m listening to find out how we can work together, all the premiers of the country, to have an immigration system that attracts workers and helps us build our economy,” he said. he throws.
In an interview, the Conservative leader also said that we must “simplify” the approval of mining projects in the case of critical minerals needed for electric cars such as lithium, cobalt and graphite, among others.
“In 2020, we produced zero lithium even though the country has the sixth largest reserve in the world. Why ? Because it takes four or five years to get government approval. So investors are going elsewhere. It hurts the environment again because it forces us to import batteries from countries that burn coal to make them. It doesn’t make sense,” he said.