(Rimouski) With Québec solidaire, it is not just citizens who will have to do their part in the fight against climate change. Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois wants to “tighten the screws” on manufacturers, even if some of them reduce their activities, but he promises in the same breath programs to “requalify” employees.
Posted at 4:07 p.m.
“All the major issuers will have to review their practices. We can no longer give privileges to large emitters [de gaz à effet de serre (GES)]. We can no longer have a carbon exchange that gives so many passes to major GHG emitters, ”explained the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire in a press briefing on Saturday.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois returned to a statement made the day before, when he was questioned by an activist during a public meeting he held at the Paradis solidarity cooperative, in Rimouski. She asked him why “Québec solidaire fears its political suicide more than our collective suicide”, since the party refuses to give up economic growth to save the planet.
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois then retorted that certain sectors of activity, such as social housing, health or public transport must continue to grow. Overall, the party does not believe that degrowth is necessary to achieve climate goals. But some sectors will taste it.
There are sectors of our economy that certainly need to shrink. The oil sector, there are several industrial sectors that will have to reduce their activities in the coming years, the coming decades, it’s true.
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois
Mr. Nadeau-Dubois stresses that his party will not let the workers down, and wants to put forward, in its climate plan which will be presented on Sunday, a “just transition”.
Just Transition
“For example, economists agree that demand for oil and gas will plateau […]. Companies will have to adapt. What is the right economic decision? Stubbornly persist in sectors destined to decline, or invest in sectors of the future and support workers in declining industries to requalify them and not lose jobs? he asked, without giving examples of which industries will be in decline, with the exception of oil refineries.
The question of the “just transition” arose during his visit to the Gaspé this week. Asked about the future of the McInnis cement plant in Port-Daniel, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois said that it could be “accompanied” so that it reduces its GHG emissions, a change of tone compared to the speech of Quebec solidaire in 2021.
Deputy Ruba Ghazal then said at the time that we would need “financial tax incentives so that it really costs so much that it is not worth doing business and continuing to operate that plant”.
Today, Mr. Nadeau-Dubois affirms rather that he will “tighten the screws on the big polluters” and that he will “stop giving them privileges”. “It is not true that we are going to put pressure on individuals, on families, by telling them to make better choices, and that during this time, we are going to let the big polluters have privileges in the market carbon. It’s not fair to pressure the world and let the big polluters off the hook,” he said.
Requalification
However, he promises to set up a “requalification” program, which will have two purposes. The first is to support workers in industries that are modernizing, for example, in the aluminum sector, who want to adopt greener technologies. “If it is necessary to modernize or change the ways of doing things and that implies that workers no longer have the skills, they must be requalified. We can’t just leave them on the side of the road,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois.
Then, in the case of the famous “decline” industries, which Mr. Nadeau-Dubois did not want to name, with the exception of refineries. “You can’t tell the workers, sorry, the demand for oil is going to level off. We cannot abandon them. These people want her to make a living. That’s just transition,” he added.