The most recent summary report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was published a few days ago. The observation: our ability to limit global warming to a viable threshold is dangerously diminishing. In fact, the global average temperature is very likely to reach, or even exceed “in the short term”, +1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era. The report suggests that this scenario could materialize in less than 10 years.
This “survival guide for humanity”, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres calls it, indicates that the choices and actions taken between now and 2030 will have vital consequences now and for thousands of years. Impossible to write these sentences without being personally overwhelmed by a deep sense of helplessness and fear. Impossible not to experience eco-anxiety.
Despite this gloomy portrait for the future of humanity, of which Quebec is of course a part, the Quebec government relegates the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity to second place, or even further. The environment still does not rise in the financial priorities of the CAQ government. Instead, they prefer to offer a tax cut to 4.6 million Quebeckers and fulfill one of their election commitments.
Even if inflation is reaching unprecedented heights, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) is choosing to leave more money in the wallets of a majority of the population. It is a political, conscious, planned choice. This flagship measure of the budget for the year 2023-2024 is estimated at 1.7 billion. It is possible due to a reduction in payments to the Generations Fund, a tool created in 2006 to reduce Quebec’s debt. As of March 31, Quebec’s debt will amount to $206.8 billion, or 37.4% of GDP. If the tax cuts had not taken place, the net debt would have been reduced by 7.5% in 10 years, but it will rather be reduced in 15 years.
Let’s be clear: this tax cut is a real breath of fresh air for the middle class and for those who are suffocated by the rising cost of living. However, rather than offering a reduction in the tax burden, it would have been much wiser to invest in concrete measures to fight climate change while making the energy transition a social project, up to the of the IPCC warning.
Greening urban areas, increasing the supply of intercity and urban public transit, adding solar panels, promoting urban agriculture, creating a national climate change awareness program starting in elementary school, offering incentives for active mobility : these are measures that should all have been announced in this budget, but no.
Disturbing fact: the imbalance between investments for the road network compared to those for public transit remains sadly immense in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI). The road network receives 31.5 billion while public transport receives only half, or 15.4 billion.
The energy transition does not seem to be a pillar of government action, and even less energy sobriety, yet demanded by several distinguished researchers such as the holder of the Chair in Energy Sector Management at HEC Montreal, Pierre-Olivier Pineau.
Once again, rather than showing courage and willpower, our decision-makers prefer to put off the real problem that awaits us all and which will cost us dearly: that of climate change. The youngest among us will suffer.