Q&A with Liberal MP on Bill 96, Fairview Forest Cabinet and Trudeau

Article content

After his re-election as Liberal MP for Lac-St-Louis in last week’s federal elections, Francis Scarpaleggia, 64, spoke about his role in the Trudeau government, the party’s stance on defending the rights of minorities in Quebec and pressure on local environmental problems. in an interview with the Montreal Gazette.

Article content

Some answers have been edited for space reasons.

Q: Have you noticed a change in the kinds of issues that matter to West Islanders since you were first elected in 2004?

TO: Environment, safe. It was one of the main topics I received feedback on in this campaign. We even tried a policy in 2008 that was very similar to the current carbon price, but was ahead of its time. People were environmentally conscious then, but now see the urgency to act on climate change.

Q What other particular concerns did West Island voters express?

TO: The labor shortage, which preceded the pandemic. For years, we have been seeing, while driving down Highway 40, buildings with signs that say: ‘We hire. That came up quite a bit. Another is the cost of housing, which is more problematic now than it was five years ago.

Article content

Q: You were part of a group of candidates who visited the Fairview Forest during the campaign. Is there a possibility that the federal government will help save the forest, or is it more of a municipal and provincial initiative?

TO: Clearly a municipal issue because it involves the powers of the City of Pointe-Claire to influence how that land could be developed. The federal government has committed to investing in urban parks. We invested $ 50 million in the Grand Parc de l’Ouest in Pierrefonds. I think the government is investigating areas across the country, so I will certainly raise it with the Minister of the Environment, whoever he is. But when it comes to saving municipal land, as in the case of Angell Woods (in Beaconsfield), a shrewd strategy is required at the municipal level. The same goes for the groups that want to save the land around the airport. Our main hook as a government is when there is an endangered species on earth, that’s where I do my research and help these groups in my role as a federal representative.

Article content

Q: Does the Fairview forest or butterfly field near the airport meet the requirements for threatened species?

TO: We have been investigating it and so far we have not found anything. That is why it is important that environmental groups and governments make inventories of what is in these lands. Normally, that falls to the province. But, for example, on the Dorval golf course, around the airport, there is a habitat for monarch butterflies. The airport authority had to destroy a habitat to make room for a construction project, but it is going to create a milkweed habitat in close proximity so the monarch will not be affected as far as I can see. I think the opinion of the experts would support that.

QYour predecessor Clifford Lincoln published a letter in the Montreal Gazette regarding his reservations to cast his vote in support of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, given the party’s timid stance on protecting minority rights regarding Bill 96 , Quebec’s new language law to reinforce Bill 101. Did you feel that traditional liberal voters shared the same sense of frustration as Lincoln in this election?

Article content

TO: I understand the frustration around the use (CAQ) of the nevertheless clause in Bill 96. But I took the opportunity to knock on the door to explain that the … respect of the liberal government for the Bill (of Rights and Liberties) and the official languages ​​is in the DNA of the Liberal Party. We have done a lot to lay the foundations for the defense of rights. We are recovering the judicial challenges program in this current round. We know that Mr. Legault wants the federal government to vacate its jurisdiction over language in federally regulated industries, and we said, ‘No.’ We were the only party that said, ‘No.’ The other parties allied themselves with Mr. Legault.

Q: Having been elected for the seventh time, are you in line for a cabinet minister position?

TO: Those decisions are made by the prime minister. But I must say, and this is not always obvious, there are many roles outside of the cabinet that must be filled in a government. So he was chairman of the Environment Committee, he was chairman of the liberal group when the election was called. That is important for the functioning of the government. So the cabinet is not the end of everything, to be honest.

[email protected]