Only a few hours before the end of the parliamentary session, the Minister of the Environment enshrines in a bill his intentions to review water royalties, without advancing on the value of any increases.
The text of the law “mainly aimed at ensuring the revision of the fees payable for the use of water”, tabled Wednesday morning, arrives very late. Minister Benoit Charette already agrees that it will not be adopted this session, but promises that it will be reintroduced as soon as it returns to the House in the fall – if the Coalition avenir Québec is again brought to power. He will make it an election promise.
Bill 42 may be destined to die on the order paper, but it remains a clear intention, Mr. Charette said on Wednesday. In particular, it provides for the holder of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change portfolio to set new royalties six months after the adoption of the new law. It also urges it to review this “water tax” every three years.
” [Les sommes] that we receive […] have remained surprisingly stable, huh. We’ve been at three million dollars, essentially, for more than a decade. So no, no progress,” observed Minister Charette, who had nevertheless refused in recent months to reopen the law to adjust the royalties imposed on the industry.
Not encrypted
A leaflet of a few pages, Bill 42 is not intended to modify royalties as such. “It’s window dressing, after all. There is no increase in royalties that is provided for in the bill, ”lamented during a press scrum the member of Quebec solidaire Émilise Lessard-Therrien.
Benoit Charette replies that his bill will make it possible to take the temperature of the water, both in industry and in citizens, to then establish an indexation rate. “There will be a consultation. […] It is also the consultation that will allow us to establish scales that could be proposed. And then, it is the regulations that will result from it which will specify this type of detail, ”he said on Wednesday.
“We cannot initiate a reform of this nature without giving a voice to the stakeholders,” he added.
Liberal MP Isabelle Melançon accuses the government of having “completely missed [é] » the opportunity to legislate before the end of the session. “Currently 250,000 Olympic swimming pools […] are pumped… These are the figures we know, because, remember, the government refuses to reveal the figures, ”she said on Wednesday.
It is currently impossible to know what volume of water is withdrawn in Quebec by the companies that bottle it for sale. The Court of Quebec agreed in early May with the multinationals who claim that this information is of a confidential nature.
Benoit Charette is not closing the door on legislating on the subject. “As a government, we are very open to being transparent on this issue,” he said on Wednesday.