Quebec will increase under its major green energy development, Legault promises

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ST-HYACINTHE – Describing Quebec’s green energy as “the gold of tomorrow,” Premier François Legault on Saturday predicted two economic booms ahead that would create thousands of jobs and prosperity again.

Promoting his current government’s plan to double Hydro-Québec’s production to the level of the mega-power projects of his predecessors, including Robert Bourassa and René Lévesque, Legault took his speakers to the front. closing Coalition Avenir Québec policy conference.

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“When we grow up, we take risks, but we take calculated risks,” Legault told the crowd of hundreds. “I would also say to those who have never done business, if we don’t take risks our lives will not go anywhere.

“I call this house, and this is building the economy of tomorrow for the next generations. Clean energy for me will become the gold of tomorrow. I don’t see anything like industrial revival in all of Quebec.”

But he said some people, including those in opposition parties, see the government’s plans as too expensive, too restrictive and too dangerous.

“There are some people who still think we’ve resigned ourselves to living in poverty,” Legault said. “There are some people who think we cannot do great things. But, happily, there is another type and they are called builders. We at CAQ are builders. “

The headlines come at the end of a difficult few weeks for the Legault government, which has faced strong criticism on the news of the financial crisis of the Swedish Northvolt project to be built in Montérégie.

The company announced 1,600 international layoffs, but said its Quebec plans have not changed. The government to date has invested $700 million in this project, a gamble to enter the supply chain to make electric cars will pay off.

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Legault did not once mention Northvolt’s name in his speech, instead focusing on his vision as a whole. It is true that doubling the capacity to produce Hydro will cost a lot of money – the estimate is between $ 150 billion and $ 185 billion – but it will pay off with “double economic progress,” he said.

The first is the building process itself. That will create thousands of jobs for engineers, linemen, technicians and electricians, some of whom will earn $100,000 a year.

The second breakthrough will be in the region when companies eager to buy green energy are opening new factories to convert such valuable resources as lithium into products, Legault added.

The process must be done in collaboration with the indigenous community, he said, asking representatives to think Saturday about Joyce Echaquan, who died at the Joliette hospital Sept. 28 three years ago.

However, Legault’s words are meant to reassure his nervous team as he enters next week the final two years of his current tenure. That means the next general election is in 2026.

In a poll compared to his first years in office, CAQ’s problems are starting to pile up. The government has an $11 billion deficit, while many Quebecers have yet to see the results of its health reforms.

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The first three weeks of the session of the National Assembly have been filled with news about Northvolt and the brutal battle in Ottawa over temporary immigration.

Cracks appear at the wrong level of the CAQ file. In two meetings held on Saturday morning, several concerned delegates took to the microphone to question the government’s work.

“I can tell you that at the local level, the CAQ is failing,” Portneuf rider Sylvain Duval told the crowd. “It’s not a joke.”

Duval complained that the government focused on large economic projects and ignored small businesses that needed help.

“There are a lot of companies that want to get money,” he said. “But you put all your eggs in the big thing.”

During a panel on immigration and employment, with the Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, sitting on the stage, the representative of Lotbinière Bruno Boulet made a list of government actions that he said hurt small businessmen.

“I have to add the whole francization law is a terrible pain in the ass,” he said in the last words in English. “We (and the investors) are not careful about this.”

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Legault’s ministers also joined in criticizing the federal government’s actions in Quebec, starting with Roberge criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for entering Friday’s domestic political debate in front of French President Emmanuel Macron.

“I think Mr. Trudeau failed, as we say,” Roberge told reporters on Saturday. “Not much. It’s not a good idea to fight in front of strangers.”

“Mr. (François) Legault showed the quality of a statesman. He did not criticize Mr. Macron. I can’t say the same for Mr. Trudeau. “

On Thursday evening, Trudeau made headlines in response to the federal government’s ongoing dispute over temporary immigration in the presence of Macron, who is in Canada on a visit.

Trudeau accused Legault ofIf he is saying something he “knows is not true” about immigration.

“It’s a shame to hear (the president) of Quebec share something and a statement about immigration that he knows is not true,” Trudeau said alongside Macron.

Legault has said that in the past two years, the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec has increased by 600,000 from 300,000, which he said is putting pressure on housing, schools and public services.

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Legault has not commented on Trudeau’s firing across the bow and did not meet with the media Saturday.

Legault and six of his ministers were absent for a government-sponsored dinner in Montreal in honor of Macron’s visit.

There was speculation that it was a sign of anger, but Legault said he had no plans to be there, while all his ministers said the invitation came at the last minute and they could not reschedule.

Roberge said that in his case he had a family event that had been in the works for a few months and could not attend.

Legault’s team said he should prepare for this weekend’s CAQ training. He leaves early in the new week to attend the annual meeting of francophone countries in Paris. Trudeau attends the same event.

Roberge insisted that relations between Quebec ministers and their federal counterparts remain good. He met with federal Immigration Minister Marc Millar and Public Safety Minister Dominique LeBlanc on Tuesday to discuss the temporary immigration situation. He said the organization was “compassionate.”

“The relationship is good,” Roberge said. “Although there has been no progress on the question of the asylum seeker, but the communication channels are not broken. Of course, I don’t think that advancing the issues related to Quebec and Canada is based on dinner.”

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Other ministers are divided over the nature of their relationship with their counterparts in Ottawa who are at the center of a high-profile political game as Trudeau’s junior government struggles to survive.

Sonia Bélanger, junior health minister, said: “It’s frustrating, it’s shocking. “We are talking, but there is no participation, there is no decision.”

Benoit Charette, the minister of the environment, said that the conflict continues between Quebec and Ottawa over the future of Quebec’s caribou population.

He said Ottawa has shown disrespect towards Quebec by threatening to settle the issue without respecting the province’s rights. The law would create protected areas for caribou, but Quebec says that would cost Quebec’s forestry industry $1 billion.

“There’s an ongoing misunderstanding,” Charette said. “There is no doubt about it. They invite us to dinner for fools. They make big dollars, but they have to do with two very different subjects. “

pauthier@postmedia.com

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