François Legault wants Ottawa to follow in Quebec’s footsteps by abandoning gas and oil exploration.
The Prime Minister indicated Thursday that he was working to attract the rest of the Canadian provinces into the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance, a coalition of states which have left behind them exploration and exploitation activities linked to gas and to oil. “We are already trying to convince Ottawa,” he said. We are trying to convince Canada, the United States, the countries that are not doing as much as the rest of us to do at least as much as the rest of us. »
Mr. Legault was responding to the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who asked him during question period to “tell Ottawa to turn off the tap on dirty oil subsidies.”
Canadian fossil fuel subsidies reached $51.5 billion last year, according to an analysis published in August by researchers at the International Monetary Fund. This amount represents the equivalent of 2% of Canadian gross domestic product, or $1,000 per capita.
“What I ask of the Prime Minister, [c’est] to tell the federal government: “The taxes of Quebecers, we no longer want that to finance the dirty oil and gas of Alberta, you are ruining all our efforts”,” underlined Mr. Nadeau- Dubois in room, Thursday.
Ottawa and Washington are not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Prime Minister agreed, before throwing a jab at his opponent on the other side of the Blue Room. “Let him come to Ottawa, let him go to the House of Commons,” said Mr. Legault. He’s in the wrong meeting here today. »
The head of the Quebec government has just returned from New York, where he participated in the Climate Ambition Summit at the United Nations. In particular, he praised Quebec’s status as a “leader” in environmental matters, an assertion contested by certain experts and by opposition groups in the National Assembly.
Quebec officially ended oil and gas exploration on its territory in 2022. Justin Trudeau’s government, for its part, promises to impose a GHG emissions cap on oil companies in the fall of 2024.
With Alexander Shields