The approval of the Bay du Nord project demonstrates that the Trudeau government’s environmental rhetoric is nothing but smoke and mirrors, according to the Bloc Québécois.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet made a formal outing on Thursday morning against this oil development project off the coast of Newfoundland, along with three of his deputies.
Mr. Blanchet first criticized the government for having made its announcement on the eve of the tabling of its budget, in order to stifle the negative reactions with another important subject. But above all, he believes that this announcement signifies the end of Canada’s commitment to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Canada, he said, has just announced to the world that “the Canadian intention, which is a huge emitter in terms of hydrocarbons, is clearly to continue to be and even to be more so”.
Mr. Blanchet thus criticized the Trudeau government for showing “institutional hypocrisy” by holding an environmental discourse that does not match the actions it is taking. “The current government is the tool of the oil industry, just as much as a Conservative government would be. I would say, to the credit of the Conservatives, they are not pretending. They weren’t looking for a former environmental activist who had gone over to the dark side of the force. »
Bad for the Quebec economy
The Bloc leader also made a point of basing his opposition on an economic argument, affirming that “it is generally an oil government that we must denounce […] for economic reasons that are extremely bad for Quebec”.
“Year after year, despite the government’s refusal to reveal figures with clear definitions, it’s no less than $15 billion (in direct and indirect aid to the oil industry) and it goes up to tens billions per year that are injected into the industry,” he said first.
Then, he recalled that this is taxpayers’ money and, therefore, that Quebec also finds itself paying billions to the industry. “Roughly speaking, a quarter of this money comes from Quebecers, but the benefits do not go to Quebecers. Billions of dollars that we could invest in the economy of the future, in the industrial economy for markets that will need clean technologies. »
Cynicism, credibility and science
For her part, her MP Kristina Michaud, responsible for the climate change file, pointed out that the green light for the Bay du Nord project comes three days after the tabling of the IPCC report expressing the urgency of reducing GHG emissions. and barely a week after the presentation of the federal plan to reduce Canadian emissions. “It’s hard not to be cynical when you see that and hard to say to yourself, yes, Canada wants to make the necessary efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. »
“The credibility of (Environment Minister Steven) Guilbeault has taken a big hit,” she added.
“For years, we have heard this government say that it bases its decisions on science,” said Bloc Québécois Monique Pauzé, environment critic. “But the science is the IPCC, it is this group of international experts who said that we should no longer do any new oil extraction. »
Threat to the ecosystem
She also denounced the intention to go drilling in a fragile ecosystem. “It’s an important place of marine biodiversity with species at risk and if there’s a spill […] to put a plug in the bottom to stop the spill, it will take between 18 and 28 days. »
Finally, the Bloc critic for natural resources, Mario Simard, estimated that oil production in Bay du Nord will force Canada to sequester an additional 430 megatonnes of GHGs.
“All the stakeholders who came to the committee to talk about these carbon sequestration and capture technologies came to tell us that it was unfeasible,” he said.
“We know very well that we will not succeed. »