Quebec will benefit from additional sums acquired through the carbon market to put fertilizer on its plan to fight climate change. The government of François Legault plans to pay nearly a billion dollars more than expected in the next five years, but continues to rely on transport and industry.
Finance Minister Eric Girard is counting in large part on new financial gains that have made it possible to improve the “green fund” — now called the Electrification and Climate Change Fund — in the past year. Over the next few weeks, his Environment colleague, Benoit Charette, will present an update of his plan to fight climate change, which will be based on an envelope of $993 million more than the one he presented in fall 2020.
In total, the “Plan for a green economy” (PEV) should therefore be based on sums of 7.6 billion dollars over five years.
Apart from the “green” exercise of the 2020 budget, which provided for sums of more than 6 billion in the environment, the Legault government has drawn a blank on the environmental level, argued Tuesday the liberal finance critic, Carlos Leitao. “It’s the same plan as in 2019 and everything will be announced later,” he protested.
“The fight against climate change is a footnote for the CAQ,” added the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Manon Massé, during the closed session that preceded the unveiling of the budget plan. The environment is “still absent” from the CAQ political horizon, continued the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
Without giving the details of each of the measures envisaged, the budget tabled Tuesday in Quebec notably extends the duration of application of the Roulez vert subsidy program for the purchase of energy-efficient vehicles. It does, however, reduce the value of subsidies given to buy new electric and hybrid cars.
“We are consistent,” said Minister Girard on Tuesday, a few hours before tabling his budget in the National Assembly. The grant is [calculée en] based on the price differential between electric and gasoline cars. »
About 53,000 people have used the Roulez vert program in the last two fiscal years. In 2030, the government of François Legault wants to see 1.5 million electric cars on the roads of Quebec.
Always more on the roads
Almost half of the budget of the next EPI implementation plan will be used to finance the transition of the transport sector. In its infrastructure plan, Quebec also provides two billion more for its road network in the next ten years, while it is setting aside 500 million to develop its public transport network.
Once again, the Quebec Infrastructure Plan therefore plans investments in a proportion of 30%-60% for public transit and roads. During the 2018 elections, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) made a commitment to move closer to “half and half”.
“We must not forget that in the section of the road network, there are 6.8 billion dollars for reserved lanes. And what are these reserved lanes for? Public transit,” said Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel on Tuesday when asked about it.
“We are, I think, in balance,” she added, specifying that she included the projects of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec in her calculation.
In addition to investing in its PEV, the Legault government pledged on Tuesday to pay just under 170 million to the cities of Montreal and Quebec so that they can finance their respective plans to fight against climate change. Add to that 100 million to launch a strategy on green hydrogen and nearly 61 million for measures to rehabilitate and decontaminate the territory.