Arrogance and decadence | The Press

If Mr. Legault wants to understand what is happening in the polls, there is also the side of arrogance that we must look at.

When I talk about arrogance, beyond Quebec City’s transportation and hockey issues, I especially think of Pierre Fitzgibbon’s ways of doing things. For some time, the minister seems to see Hydro-Québec as a simple private company of which he is the ultimate big boss, and many of us are swimming in incomprehension.

How have we, in the space of a year, gone from a nation that sought to open gigantic energy sales markets in the United States to this Quebec that is going to run out of electricity that we hear about? ad nauseam ? Not long ago, we were told about electricity sales contracts worth 30 billion with the State of New York which were to bring in profits of around 950 million per year for 25 years. Another contract signed with Massachusetts was to bring an additional 10 billion into the coffers of the Quebec state.

What is happening with all these agreements when we are now being told that Quebec is heading towards an electricity deficit? When these sales contracts were signed, did the government see these times of shortage coming? Is it possible to go back and keep our electricity if we need it so much?

Upset by all these questions, my brain continues to ruminate on Sophie Brochu’s very lucid declaration before her departure: “Quebec must not become a Dollarama of electricity. »

Much more than a state corporation, Hydro-Québec is a national pride that deserves careful monitoring on our part. Indeed, if there is one certainty that leaves no shadow of a doubt, it is that opportunity predators have never stopped salivating over Hydro. All it takes is a tiny breach for these privatization champions and other opportunity hunters to rush in and never come out.

However, many specialists consider that TES Canada’s self-production electricity project for commercial purposes is a precedent that threatens Hydro-Québec’s monopoly.

But that is the least of the worries of the Fitzgibbon-Sabia duo who are moving forward openly with the blessing of François Legault. However, if there is one issue that should concern us all, it is what this minister is trying to do with Hydro-Québec.

Not everything is perfect in our state-owned company, but one thing is certain: we will never be better served than with the Hydro-Québec monopoly.

We would also benefit collectively from drawing a line that the minister must not cross to prevent this most important pillar of the Quiet Revolution from wavering because of his personal ambitions. This minister embodies the arrogance that is dynamiting the Coalition Avenir Québec.

Often, when wealthy businessmen enter the political arena, we talk about their desire to serve and give back to the community. However, most of the time, it is political power, much more of an aphrodisiac than money, that attracts them. Why else would Donald Trump risk everything he has to get his hands on the presidency of the United States?

For better or for worse, political power brings a prestige that money cannot guarantee to its possessor. The proof is that even business people 10 times richer than him do not have as much light and influence as Fitzgibbon. With his hand on our electricity, he recommends or decides which foreign company can come and take advantage of Quebec’s energy windfall, casually opens breaches in the Hydro-Québec monopoly that its builders wanted to be hermetic, talks about bringing back nuclear power and expresses his pressing desire to build new dams.

However, a bit like an environmental fund for generations, we should consider leaving these last great rivers as a legacy to those who come after us. I mean without harnessing them. This duty of intergenerational solidarity should be part of the discussions around energy sobriety.

In politics, it happens that business people who have power take advantage of their position to open doors and allow their former friends, who are also their future partners, to slip into openings that the population would like to keep tight. .

An example. When federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau slipped a provision into omnibus Bill C-29 that would have allowed banks to circumvent the Quebec Consumer Protection Act, he worked for his friends. His plan was fortunately thwarted by the vigilance of Bloc Québécois MPs.

With his muscular defense of TES Canada’s self-production of electricity project which, according to Jean-Pierre Finet, spokesperson for the Regroupement des organisms Environnemental en Énergie, would turn René Lévesque into his grave, it is reasonable to wonder if the Fitzgibbon’s ambitions for Hydro-Québec are simply motivated by the attachment to the common good that drove its builders forward.

One thing is certain, the minister is categorical: the privilege granted to TES Canada is only the beginning of a vision that will produce children. Moreover, we learned this week that the giant Amazon is already pushing its candidacy to do the same thing. Once inside the system, like a virus, they will find ways to escape immune surveillance and seek to expand their influence by dreaming of taking control. A bit like what happened with the digital giants. We were slow to impose limits on them and the result today is catastrophic.

I wonder how we can boast of being a nationalist government when we are working to lay the foundations for a certain denationalization of Hydro-Québec.

There is a lot of talk about the $7 million spent to bring the Kings from Los Angeles to Quebec. But what does this sum represent compared to the tens of millions invested in the development of all these transport projects that the government ended up throwing in the trash with ostensible arrogance?

If François Legault wants to improve the esteem of the population, I recommend that he carry out a huge ministerial reshuffle and remove all these headliners from Quebec City. I also humbly believe that he should remove the energy file from Pierre Fitzgibbon if he does not want history to shamefully remember his name as the one who began the denationalization of Hydro-Québec.

Moreover, no offense to those who minimize these breaches, on such an important subject, Quebecers should be invited to a referendum, because we have never voted for what Pierre Fitzgibbon is trying to do.