The tacit support of the Prime Minister Francois Legault to the conservative leader Erin O’Toole makes some environmentalists fear the worst and worries researchers who want Canada to get more involved in the fight against climate change.
“A disturbing decision”, “a completely irresponsible choice”, and “unworthy of a prime minister”. This is how Greenpeace Canada spokesperson Patrick Bonin describes François Legault’s support for the Conservative Party.
“This is a serious drift on the part of Mr. Legault, it is proof that for him, the environment and climate change are not a priority, despite the fine statements when he said that there was an emergency climate change and that he could not look his children in the eye if we did not fight against climate change ”.
In an interview with The Canadian Press Patrick Bonin thus referred to François Legault’s inaugural speech to the National Assembly in November 2018, when the Prime Minister declared:
“The survival of our planet is at stake. I cannot ignore this challenge of the climate emergency and continue to look my two sons in the eye. “
For the spokesperson for Greenpeace Canada, “there is absolutely nothing to gain for the Quebec nation by bringing to power a party that will accelerate the climate crisis and it is almost surreal to see Mr. Legault putting all his weight behind a party which is literally an environmental dunce, and which proposes to roll back Canada and Quebec ”.
Greenpeace’s list of grievances against the CCP is long, Patrick Bonin notably denounces the CCP’s policies which would ensure that “the price on carbon would be weakened”.
A “price” on carbon rather than a “tax”
If elected prime minister, Erin O’Toole does indeed want to abolish the carbon tax adopted by the Trudeau government three years ago.
According to Catherine Potvin, professor in the Department of Biology at McGill University and climate specialist, the carbon tax is “one of the best Canadian policies in recent years” to fight climate change.
“I believe it should be a cornerstone of Canadian politics rather than starting to play with it to make it something less effective as the Conservative Party is proposing,” says the researcher.
The Conservative Party wants to replace the carbon tax with a carbon “price” for individuals, a sort of rewards program that would bill Canadians for the hydrocarbon-based fuels they buy and accumulate funds in a personal savings account.
A program that Pierre-Olivier Pineau, holder of the Chair in Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal, describes as a “loyalty card”.
“The more you buy products that contain carbon such as gasoline, the more points you accumulate, and you can only spend the points on green goods, for example, an electric car. It is very paradoxical, because the more you spend on hydrocarbons, the more points you receive ”, explains the researcher.
“With this system, someone who is very virtuous and who travels by bike would have no encouragement, on the other hand someone who has a ‘Hummer’ would get more points, because he produces more carbon,” he illustrates.
According to Pierre-Olivier Pineau, “it is a loyalty program, but on the contrary, it would be necessary to make people unfaithful to carbon”.
He qualifies the exit of Prime Minister Legault “a little worrying”, at a time when “we should accelerate the efforts in the fight against climate change”.
The discourse of the Conservative Party has changed since the days when Stephen Harper called the Kyoto Protocol a “socialist conspiracy”. Erin O’Toole presented an 8-page plan, with 13 different policies, that included investments in electric vehicles, hydrogen power, and carbon capture and sequestration, among others.
“The Conservatives’ program, even if it is light years away from the party’s previous program, the fact remains that it does not go far enough” indicates Pierre-Olivier Pineau who believes that the Conservatives have not the will necessary to ask Canadians to make the extra efforts that are absolutely necessary in the fight against climate change ”.
Because even though Leader Erin O’Toole says he wants to fight climate change, it seems that the majority of his party members are not on the same wavelength.
Last March during the virtual congress of Conservative Party of Canada, Erin O’Toole tried to pass a motion to recognize and address the existence of climate change, but 54% of her party members voted against.
This “skepticism” within the conservative troops makes the economist and professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and UQAM, Éric Pineault, say “that Erin O’Toole will not be there to defend the climate issues ”at the United Nations conference this fall.
Canada is preparing to attend COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland in November, where countries are expected to step up commitments.
In view of this event, the Liberal government has raised its targets by committing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by about 40 to 45% from 2005 levels by 2030. The previous target was 30 %.
But the leader of the Conservative Party would not meet Canada’s new greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, but rather those set by the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper.
Michael Bernstein, CEO of Clean Prosperity, believes that if Erin O’Toole returned to a 30% target, it would be a step backwards for Canada compared to its G7 allies.
“If he clings to the 30%, he will be forced to revise the current federal government target which has already been communicated to the UN as part of the Paris agreement,” Bernstein wrote in a statement. statement sent to The Canadian Press.
“This would constitute a violation of the Paris Agreement and, while there are no real legal consequences, it would send a very bad message to the rest of the world, including potential investors, about Canada’s real commitment. in the fight for the climate, ”he believes.
The tacit support of François Legault
Last week, Prime Minister Legault indicated that his first choice would go to the election of a minority Conservative government on September 20.
He rejected the Liberal Party from Justin trudeau, the NDP of Jagmeet Singh and the Green Party ofAnnamie Paul, because the three of them refuse to grant more autonomy to Quebec if they form the next government in Ottawa.
“It will be easier for Quebec to negotiate new powers with Mr. O’Toole than Mr. Trudeau,” said Mr. Legault.
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