The Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet will not do a mea culpa for the Port-Daniel cement plant, but he is protesting against the “appalling management” of the project.
This controversial Gaspé plant, one of the most important polluters in Quebec, received the approval of Mr. Blanchet, in 2013-2014, when he was Minister of the Environment in the PQ government of Pauline Marois.
Passing through Gaspé for his election campaign, not far from the site of the McInnis factory in Port-Daniel-Gascons, Mr. Blanchet was called upon to justify himself.
“I’m still happy with my decision at the time,” he replied at a press conference.
When a journalist asked him if he was going to do a mea culpa, he replied: “no”.
The Bloc leader, however, suggested that the project presented by the promoter was not the one that had been carried out and that the governments were fooled by false representations.
He was then in negotiations at the time concerning the energy source of the plant, which was to come from local forest residues, which would have made it “the greenest cement plant on the planet”, he pleaded. .
Finally, the facilities burn petroleum coke and they have passed the milestone of one million tonnes per year of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
“The appalling management of the project afterwards, the lies that have been told to everyone about the use and commercial destinations of this cement, the staggering cost overruns, it has absolutely nothing to do with the Minister of the Environment. “
He refuses to take the blame for all the disappointments suffered by the factory.
“We do not tell someone who was minister in 2013-2014 that he is responsible for what happened eight years later because the project was mismanaged afterwards. Really, no, I am not responsible for what comes after my ministry or my role as minister. No liability. “
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