Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois encourages the leaders of Québec political parties to meet in September to find a “transpartisan” solution to the extreme climatic events that have shaken Québec in recent months and “will multiply” in the next years.
In a letter addressed to Premier François Legault, Liberal leader Marc Tanguay and PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the MNA for Gouin stresses the importance of “making adaptation to climate change a real national priority, beyond across party lines.
“Our political formations have divergent strategies on the environment, and our greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets are not the same,” he agrees. “However, regardless of which party comes to power in 2026, the GHG emissions of the past decades have already committed us to a process of climate change. In this context, we have a common responsibility towards Quebeckers. »
Since winter, extreme weather events have been piling up. In April, Greater Montreal was hit by an ice storm of rare intensity. More than a million people were without electricity for several days. Then, in May, the rising waters led to the flooding of Baie-Saint-Paul and its surroundings.
Since the beginning of June, a series of forest fires has forced thousands of Quebecers to evacuate their homes, especially in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Nord-du-Québec.
“Scientists have been warning us for a long time about the intensification and multiplication of these natural phenomena and many others (erosion of banks, heat waves, droughts, etc.) in the context of climate change”, observes Mr. Nadeau-Dubois in his letter. “We have a responsibility to work together to do better. »
The supportive spokesperson urges his colleagues to work on “a long-term plan and vision”. He invites them to a meeting “from the first days of the next parliamentary session, in order to jointly draw up an inventory and determine a cross-partisan approach for the rest of things”.
“We did it on medical assistance in dying. We did it on the well-being of children with the Laurent Commission. For me, adaptation to climate change falls into the same category,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois in an interview with The duty Monday.
As these lines were written, responses from the three leaders were still pending. Reached in the middle of the afternoon, the Office of Prime Minister Legault indicated that “the urgency, currently, is to put out the fires and ensure the safety of affected Quebecers”.
The Coalition avenir Québec government has earmarked $860 million over five years in the latest plan to implement its Plan for a Green Economy. At the beginning of June, faced with the accumulation of forest fires, François Legault had agreed that it would be necessary to “do more” and invest more to adapt to climate change.