When you lead a party and run for office for the first time, you think about getting elected.
When you are in power and you run for office a second time, you think about getting re-elected.
When you’re re-elected and you run for a third time, you think about the legacy you’re going to leave behind once you’re no longer here.
François Legault is there.
He thinks about the place he will occupy in the History of Quebec.
- Listen to the Martineau – Dutrizac meeting broadcast live every day at 11:35 a.m. via QUB radio :
The legacy
Jean Lesage’s legacy was the Quiet Revolution.
That of René Lévesque, the nationalization of hydroelectricity.
That of Robert Bourassa, the large hydroelectric dams.
That of Jacques Parizeau, the Caisse de dépôt.
That of Jean Charest… uh.
And that of François Legault will be the battery sector.
At the beginning, it was supposed to be the Saint-Laurent project (transforming the Saint-Laurent valley into the Silicone Valley of the north), but ultimately, it will be the electric battery.
This is the mark that François Legault wants to leave.
“The largest private industrial project in the history of Quebec,” nothing less.
And to get there, Mr. Legault and his superminister of the Economy are ready to take out the checkbook.
The big.
The one we take out for special occasions.
With long lines, to multiply zeros.
Photo Agence QMI, JOEL LEMAY
With no studies
Guy LeBlanc, the big boss of Investissement Québec, recently reported that there will be private and public investments of $30 billion in this megaproject.
Three hundred times a hundred million.
Usually, when you are ready to invest such amounts, it is because you are sure of your business! You are armored!
You base your decision on rigorous studies! Solid! Concrete! Which demonstrate in black and white that the game is worth it and that the risks of failing are limited!
You did your homework! Your calculations!
You have planned for the worst scenarios!
You wonder what would happen to your little province if China also launched into the same industry! With much greater means!
No?
Well no.
Quebec is embarking on this pharaonic adventure “with no studies”.
Just on a “feeling”.
The energy transition is in vogue, electric cars are popular, so we are launching into the manufacture of electric batteries.
So.
After “It’s going to be fine”, François Legault tells us: “Trust me. After all, I have your best interests at heart.”
I want to, but…
Thirty billion? Without study?
Not even a visit to a fortune teller?
The Legault style
Notice, this is the style of the Legault government.
Take the third link, which was supposed to be “the biggest tunnel in the world.” Were there any studies for the third link?
No.
As Fabienne Thibault sang, it was again “a question of feeling”.
With the results that we know.
I like Mr. Legault, but… we’re talking about $30 billion here.
We’re going to go to the casino and we’re going to bet it on red 11, like that, just because the horoscope told us we were going to be lucky?
Not sure.
Not sure at all.