Avoid distraction or disappointment? | The Press

Members of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) competed in intellectual contortion to explain to us the meaning of the words “discipline” and “distractions”, their watchwords at the start of the 2024 political year. This new slogan obviously includes the need to close ranks and wash dirty laundry as a family. Unfortunately, this way of building an opaque wall between elected officials and the people is the main source of cynicism towards politicians.

So, even if the Prime Minister talks about distractions, his problem stems from a series of disappointments. It is more consistency and transparency that the CAQ really needs. Indeed, since the end of the pandemic, the boss’s decisions have been more difficult to follow. If Claude Legault caricatures him so well in the Bye, it’s not because they have the same last name. I rather think it’s because François is sometimes as good at improvisation as Claude.

I do not need to go over all the inconsistencies which led to the rupture of the umbilical cord of trust which strongly united him with the French-speaking vote. However, as a humble observer of politics, allow me to give him advice, much more felt than expert, on the undermined issue which can politically hurt the CAQ even more.

I think that Mr. Legault should particularly monitor the buzz of the Fitzgibbon-Sabia duo around the Hydro-Québec monopoly.

Although we are still presented with this part that we want to leave to the private sector as a small valve to help Hydro, mistrust is required, because Quebec has already starred in similar films.

Two examples. When the private sector began its ill-fated incursion into the health system, it was the same speech we were told. This small breach was presented as a relief or a contribution from the private sector to help relieve congestion in certain sectors of the hospital system. Today, is there anyone who still thinks that the private health sector will not stay, grow, diversify and even dream of providing serious competition to the public network?

The same speech was also used to reassure us about the very marginal nature of the place of private health agencies. What has happened since then? They are now so powerful and essential that packing them down would cause major turbulence.

So, even if we go above and beyond in intellectual gymnastics to explain to ourselves that this will have no effect on its monopoly, this is what ultimately risks happening to Hydro-Québec. Time always ends up revealing the devil, however well hidden he may be in the details. Energy is the lucrative sinews of war in these times of decarbonization of economies. However, to think that you can give a finger to the big private company without it working to grab your arm is a utopia.

Neoliberalism is a predatory activity whose desire to grow remains the sacred and fundamental law. Why would large companies work in the shadows to open a breach for themselves when they do not dream of one day collecting more than the crumbs that we are told we want to reserve for them? If industrial companies begin to own wind farms on public land and produce, transport and sell their electricity to others or to Hydro-Québec, will they later be prevented from practicing the principle of the food chain? who is at the center of the capitalist economy?

In this doctrine, each eats the smallest who precedes him and becomes food for the largest who follows him. In the end, the big predator(s) will remain.

In other words, if a company buys the other small private electricity producers and becomes bigger, what will happen? What will happen when this company has the strength of its ambitions ahead of Hydro?

However hypothetical, this possibility is a very important parameter in the equation and trivializing the fears of the population by talking about a fear campaign on such a sensitive subject is not an argument.

As former politician Thomas Mulcair recently pointed out, the Mike Harris government used the same communication strategies to undertake the dismantling of Ontario Hydro and precipitate the liberalization of the province’s energy sector which will be completed by Kathleen Wynne. However, today, electricity costs more in Ontario than in Quebec.

At home, eager to fulfill the Prime Minister’s desire to create more lucrative jobs and reduce the wage gap with Ontario which has become his obsession, we have taken steps to open up the possibility to those seeking discounted electricity. to come and settle in Quebec. This has generated a huge increase in connection requests from industrial groups who want to take advantage of this energy windfall.

Faced with the impossibility of responding to this request, instead of calling into question the minister’s overly greedy seduction campaign, they are trying to sell us the limits of efficiency of the Hydro-Québec monopoly as being problematic. An indirect way of saying that we would be better served by a certain openness to the free market. Find the mystification.

Let’s be clear, I don’t like ultra-liberalism, but I have absolutely nothing against fair private enterprise. I am a mini-entrepreneur myself. All I’m trying to say is that we gain nothing from exposing Hydro to possible risks of predation or balkanization by relying solely on the politician’s word.

In any case, François Legault and his government have never asked for or received the mandate to open this door that the vast majority of the population would like to keep locked. If the Prime Minister decides to move in this direction, he will face a powerful headwind for the remainder of his mandate.

That said, I am one of those who think that the fall of the CAQ is reversible and François has time to regain his place in the hearts of Quebecers. To do this, he simply needs to remember at every moment the reasons why the coalition he leads was founded. A major ministerial reshuffle would also be much more relevant as a marker of renewal than all these words which are just words.