(Quebec) “Almost all” of the actions financed by the Electrification and Climate Change Fund (FECC) “do not have adequate indicators or targets”. And the government’s energy policy has so many shortcomings that it risks “compromising Quebec’s energy transition”, denounces the Commissioner for Sustainable Development.
Posted at 10:18 a.m.
Updated at 10:35 a.m.
“The framework put in place to date by the Ministry of the Environment does not ensure effective and transparent management of the FECC. The Ministry does not have uniform and sufficient management information on actions financed by the FECC. It is therefore unable to monitor their performance, in particular because almost all of these actions do not have indicators or adequate targets, ”reports Janique Lambert, in her report filed on Wednesday.
Environment Minister Benoît Charette has long prided himself on having a quantified and reliable plan to achieve the climate target of reducing GHG emissions by -37.5% by 2030, while fraying the former government. Liberal for the pitfalls of the Green Fund.
But little has changed, says the commissioner. In fact, 80% of planned spending, or $5.4 billion out of $6.7 billion, comes from the 2013-2020 plan. They were renewed “without having previously evaluated their performance”.
old recipe
“Assessing the performance of equities is all the more important since the PACC 2013-2020 was the centerpiece that should contribute to achieving the target of a reduction of 20% below the 1990 level” and that Quebec has rather completely missed target. The Legault government is now using the same recipe, and still hopes to reach the 2030 target.
The Ministry of the Environment replied that it has established a timetable “to revise them by 2030 in order to improve their performance”. But the Commissioner is worried since the money is already coming out. And for certain actions, the MELCC has simply chosen to renew “without adjustment” programs which nevertheless failed to achieve their objectives.
For example, it targets the Ecoperformance programs (energy efficiency and conversion to less GHG-emitting energies), Technoclimat-bioenergies and Chauffez vert, all of which have missed their targets in the past, and which have seen their budgets renewed. “The longer the ministry delays revising them, the more amounts are committed over several years without being able to benefit from the required adjustments,” she notes.
She also criticizes the slowness of the ministry, which “transmitted belatedly to the partners the directives concerning the quantification of GHGs and has not yet transmitted the accountability directive in order to guide the evaluation of the performance of the actions”. If we want to know how many GHGs are avoided thanks to this or that subsidy, we will have to be patient.
“In February 2022, it was not possible to assess the performance of almost 90% of the 78 ongoing actions financed by the FECC since they had no indicator or they had inadequate indicators”, explains Janique Lambert.
The MELCC is also unable to play its role of “coordinating government-wide actions in the fight against climate change”: no interministerial committee on this subject has met since September 2021.
Minister Julien criticized
In his report, Mr.me Lambert also scratches the Minister of Energy Jonatan Julien and his 2030 Energy Policy. Adopted in 2016, it is accumulating delays. “Even though more than six years have passed since the adoption of the policy, the MERN has still not taken all that was necessary to ensure the achievement of the targets and does not assess the progress made towards their achievement. reached in 2030,” she says.
In his opinion, “the shortcomings that we have identified risk compromising Quebec’s energy transition”.