For several weeks now, we have been making a point of a so-called opposition between the evil CAQ government or, even more, even the very evil Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, with the good Sophie Brochu, president of Hydro- Quebec.
On the Fitzgibbon side, there is a desire to further develop Quebec hydroelectricity in order to sell it at a discount in order to attract foreign companies; on the Brochu side, we would advocate a restricted development of our electricity sources, but based on wind sources and consumption restriction policies.
This is my understanding of a clash which, in fact, is inflated and extrapolated by the media from a simple speech by Mme Leaflet.
Well, I don’t want to take a position in this alleged divergence, but I do know one thing: Quebec’s energy policy must be developed and implemented by its elected government, and not senior officials.
For the record, it was René Lévesque who decided on the nationalization of electricity in 1962, and not Hydro-Québec; it was Robert Bourassa who decided on the development of James Bay in 1971, not Hydro-Québec. And so it is.
I knew M.me Brochu around 2010, then at Gaz Métro, when she campaigned for the construction of the Rabaska LNG terminal in Lévis. His project had finally been buried by the government of Pauline Marois. It should always be the politician who decides, not the senior civil servants.
To see in video