To be precise, 922 million will be invested over the next five years in this “2030 Nature Plan”. Plus some cost overruns in park development! That’s a lot of money for a government that has a deficit of 11 billion.
The opposition cried out for a few million in a PGA tournament that pays off more than our investment. The oppositions screamed for a presence of the Kings in Quebec which cost a few million and which should, we hope, be self-financing. Not a word, not a question about an expense 200 times larger, the real impact of which is more than uncertain.
You know the reason: when it comes to the environment, we no longer count the dollars. When it comes to protecting the chorus frog, normal cost/benefit analyzes take a backseat. Above all, no one wants to be seen criticizing a so-called green investment.
Let’s get one thing straight: I love our national parks. I know four of the five parks that are being expanded well. These are absolutely precious places: Bic Park, Îles-de-Boucherville, Mont-Orford, Mont-St-Bruno. And I have only heard good things about the fifth, the Plaisance National Park. I have no doubt about the value of the territories that we wish to add to them.
What priority?
I have no further doubt about the value of the three new parks that we want to create. I am thinking in particular of the unique character of the Tadoussac dunes which one day deserve this status. But is that the priority right now? Are there queues at the entrance to parks like at hospitals?
Finances are in bad shape. We are delaying school renovation projects which seem much more urgent. Ministers are saying no to several pressing requests. We do not have the means to air-condition CHSLDs or renovate the metro. But we are releasing a billion for a “Nature Plan”.
The bureaucratic response is ready: most of these sums are already planned in the ministries’ planning for the coming years. I’m willing, but it’s still columns of numbers on paper. We don’t have this money, we’ll have to borrow it.
Waste?
Concerns about the last 100 million which aims to mobilize “people and organizations who contribute to the protection of Quebec’s rich natural heritage”. I fear to see money given to a range of green and virtuous organizations who will promise to save this frog or that distaff. They will pay themselves salaries and make reports, most of which will not be used.
When the Ministry of the Environment distributes the money in this way, certain more militant organizations also receive their share of the pie. In some cases, they will fight against economic projects with public money. Profitable?
The CAQ government, used to being hit on by environmentalists, thinks it will appease them with such initiatives. Unfortunate doom and gloom.