(Quebec) “Crazy braque”, “dogmatism”, “anti-scientific”: the Minister of the Environment Benoît Charette received a volley of green wood from the opposition parties for having asserted that the road tunnel project between Quebec and Lévis was would do regardless of the conclusions of environmental studies.
“The advice of the experts, you have to hear them, you have to listen to them and they have to be the ones who develop the best possible projects, OK? To start a project without having the opinions of the Public Hearings Office on the environment, the government is losing all credibility, ”denounced the liberal transport critic André Fortin on Wednesday, during a press briefing. in the National Assembly.
Mr. Fortin denounces the government’s desire to start a project of this size “without even having environmental studies, without even knowing the impact it will have”. “Just that, at its core, it’s crazy, and then you can be sure we wouldn’t do that,” he said.
He was reacting to the exit of the Minister of the Environment Benoît Charette who said the day before that no environmental study, whether federal or provincial, could prevent the construction of the 10 billion motorway tunnel. “When it comes to infrastructure of this nature, environmental assessments are more about mitigating negative environmental impacts and not questioning the infrastructure or […] prevent its construction. These are evaluations which, depending on the results that will be communicated to us, will allow us to adjust certain ways of doing things to ensure that we have the minimum possible impact on the environment, ”said Mr. Charette.
Election obsession
Québec solidaire and the Parti Québécois are also banging on the nail. “It is not only one project among others, it is a total electoral and political obsession,” denounced the parliamentary leader of QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. He particularly criticizes Benoît Charette, who according to him renounces his role of defender of the environment and who “lacks respect” towards the BAPE.
“The CAQ has the right to persist in its third link project, but the Minister of the Environment should at least defend the integrity and the importance of the processes that we have in Quebec to make decisions”, he said.
While scientists from around the world gathered at COP26, he said, “a bunch of Caquist ministers are multiplying anti-scientific statements and telling us: no matter what the experts tell us, no matter what the studies say, we will go for it ”.
Political interests
The parliamentary leader of the PQ, Joël Arseneau, for his part, underlines that the third link project stands out from other projects, such as the Quebec City tramway, because the government has not yet demonstrated that it is useful.
“It is full of meaning as a statement, coming from a Minister of the Environment. Basically, what he says is that nothing and no one will be able to prevent the project, even if it does not meet a proven need, even if it is expensive, 10 billion dollars or even more, even if the science says the opposite of what the government says, ”he lamented.
This project “is essentially based on nothing”, he adds: “No study, no scientific data, no financial data”. Minister Charette’s statement announces in advance “that we are wasting our time hoping that the government will adopt a reasonable decision based on science or on facts,” believes Mr. Arseneau. “We obviously choose political interests over the general interests of the population. It makes absolutely no sense, ”he lamented.
In the chamber, Mr. Charette replied that the third link is “necessary for the region” of Quebec, but that the environmental assessments “will cover all aspects” of the project.
The Minister of Transport François Bonnardel maintained that “studies and data” on the infrastructure project will be “released in due course”, that is to say “when the work of the BAPE is done”.
He attacked the past of the Liberal Party of Quebec and the Parti Québécois, which passed a law “not to subject the most polluting project in the history of Quebec, the McInnis cement plant”, to a study by the BAPE.