François Legault and Pierre Fitzgibbon consider themselves business tycoons, above their affairs. Their disregard for the public and legitimate concerns for the environment is poisoning the Northvolt file, which is nevertheless an interesting project.
Minister Benoit Charette went before the media this week to admit what everyone knew: the CAQ had loaded the dice to prevent the battery factory project from going before the BAPE, for fear of seeing the company choose to establish elsewhere.
The Northvolt factory is not weighed down by “militant ecologists” or by journalists. It is the two mononc’ Legault and Fitzgibbon, who tried to fool the population, who are responsible for creating a climate of distrust and suspicion.
Legault and his prima donna minister of everything Fitzgibbon think that “big business” is too complicated for everyone. That the rules of the game are only for losers! It’s better to hold press conferences with oranges and apples to make fun of people. Why not, anyway, given their behavior worthy of a banana republic?
Respect our institutions
For 45 years, we have had here in Quebec a unique institution of its kind. Our Environmental Quality Act created an organization to listen to the population and advise the government, the BAPE (Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement).
The BAPE does not decide. Above all, he gives opinions, valuable opinions to guide the government, but – and this is the key to his credibility and his success – he does so after giving the public the opportunity to express themselves.
Yes, there is a lot of experience and technical expertise among the members of the BAPE, but it is its “institutionalized church basement” character that allows us to have the pulse of the population while informing it. .
These days, we hear about social license as if it’s an idea designed to go around in circles. It’s wrong.
Social acceptability is a key ingredient for the success of any major project. The public does not want to block, they want to know. And if we lie to them, as Legault and Fitzgibbon lied, the public rightly turns on them.
Once social acceptability is lost, it is exceedingly difficult to reestablish it. Legault and Fitzgibbon never understood that.
Play fair
Since the third link debacle, one might have thought that the CAQ had learned its lesson: you lie to the public at your own risk. In politics, when you are not believed, you are cooked! And, here, the carrots are cooked.
If Legault had simply said that we were obliged to accelerate the BAPE process at the risk of losing any chance of having the project, I think the majority of people would have understood.
Instead, we wasted four months being filled by Legault and Fitzgibbon.
Such a waste!