The Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, assures that Quebec will not lack electricity. He relaunched hostilities with The Montreal Journalaccusing the daily newspaper of “scaring fear in the world”.
Article from Montreal Journal in hand, his eyes riveted on the cameras of the news channels, Mr. Fitzgibbon attacked the work of the daily’s journalists, during a press scrum on Friday, on the sidelines of a speech organized by the Relations Council international institutions of Montreal (CORIM). “I would tell the people of Quebec to pay attention to newspaper headlines like that. This is bad information. Quebec will not lack energy. »
The Montreal Journal reported earlier Friday that Hydro-Québec anticipates that it will need new supplies from the winter of 2027-2028, two years earlier than it anticipated last year.
Visibly stung when a journalist from the daily asked him a follow-up question on the subject, the minister described the article as “unacceptable” and “bad”. He asked the journalist to “stop scaring the world”.
Mr. Fitzgibbon says that Hydro-Québec customers are not likely to run out of electricity in the coming years. “We have energy for residential, commercial and industrial on an organic basis [les installations déjà existantes], he explains. There is no energy problem. For new industrial projects, you have to be parsimonious. »
The minister says that there are 500 megawatts still available for new industrial projects. “The figure will increase because we are going to install wind power. »
Tight relationships
This is not the first time that the minister has attacked journalists from Montreal Journal.
Last year, he publicly denounced on social networks a journalist’s questions regarding a personal donation he had made to HEC Montreal, his alma mater. In April, he took another journalist from the daily to task, accusing him of “rehashing old stories” about meetings he had had with business partners.
These spats with the media owned by Quebecor had earned him criticism from the Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ).
“The role of journalists is to ask questions,” replied the vice-president of the FPJQ, Éric-Pierre Champagne (he is now president of the executive committee), last December. Even if Mr. Fitzgibbon does not like people to look at the actions he has taken, as a minister, with a history of ethics, it is completely normal for journalists to search the files and tell him ask legitimate questions. »
At Montreal Journal, we assured that his team would not bow to the minister’s criticism last April. “Our journalists are doing their job,” reacted the director of the economic section of the Montreal Journal, Yves Daoust. We will continue to do our investigations. »