Nothing can resist the steamroller of the Quebec government’s new industrial policy. And there is no shortage of examples…
In Bécancour, the Ministry of Transport is redoing sections of Highway 30 to facilitate the transit of trucks traveling to the battery factory site, which will be built partly on agricultural land. The same goes for Northvolt in Montérégie, for which taxpayers are financing the construction of a road to the tune of $22 million in anticipation of the mega-factory construction site.
Meanwhile, the Auditor General of Quebec tells us that 50% of the roads are in poor condition, due in particular to the monopolization of resources by the budget intended for new roads as well as the emergency work carried out to deal with the consequences of climate change on infrastructure.
In addition to the Ministry of Transport, other ministries are participating in this new industrial policy. We will quickly give all the necessary environmental authorizations so that the McMasterville plant can be quickly built, after refusing a residential neighborhood project because it was detrimental to the conservation of biodiversity. Find the mistake.
When we take a step back from these actions, the billions in public aid granted to battery manufacturers in the name of the energy transition contrast particularly with the financing limits imposed on public transport companies.
While we are multiplying the announcements of the establishment of battery factories, the government seems to think that we have too many public transport projects! The tramway, Quebec City’s flagship sustainable mobility project, was recently scrapped. The title “Sustainable Mobility” is indeed incidental in the official designation of the Ministry of Transport, which the minister herself recognizes.
And while we roll out the industrial red carpet, we leave sustainable transport options with both feet in quicksand.
We thus come to forget that those who live in Quebec should primarily benefit from this transition. Many people rightly wonder what the concrete applications of the government’s vision of the energy transition are. Why develop new energy production capacities if only a few companies pampered with our taxes can benefit from them?
Fitzgibbon’s selective emergency
Recently, the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy explained why it was necessary to reduce the administrative burden linked to approval for the construction of dams. In the midst of a climate emergency, the associated delays have no place, he said before the Montreal Council on International Relations.
Deadlines that have no place in the midst of a climate emergency? We say bravo!
It’s good to hear a minister being realistic about the climate emergency. But it would be nice if the urgency felt by Pierre Fitzgibbon was reflected in the decisions and actions of his boss and other ministries. It would be nice if everything was reflected in services to the population, the well-being of our communities and the protection of our territory.
I listen to Minister Fitzgibbon talk to us about increasing production for the purposes of industrial development and I still wonder if it is only a handful of companies that will benefit from the energy transition. We want to increase energy production, we subsidize the establishment of beneficiaries with billions, but it seems that the rest of the government apparatus does not operate with the same sense of urgency in its own files.
If we invoke the climate emergency to reduce the deadlines for building dams, it would be entirely logical to reduce the deadlines for the establishment of new protected areas, the connection to the three-phase electricity network of farmers, the construction of lines tram, metro, train and cycle paths as well as energy-efficient renovation of rental housing, right?
What’s good for kitty should be good for kitty. And this, even if kitty does not manufacture Hummer batteries…
Currently, a minister within the government chooses the winners of the energy transition and puts all the conditions in place to achieve his objective. It would be good for his colleagues to get on board so that everyone in Quebec can benefit.