Québec solidarity delegates vote to strengthen climate change policy

Solidarity members in Quebec are spending the weekend crafting the party’s new electoral platform. A key priority for a QS government would be the fight against climate change.

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Pressured by its most militant members, Québec Solidaire voted on Saturday to reinforce its already tough policy to fight climate change.

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But they rejected even more radical ideas like nationalizing oil companies and banning cars of all kinds by 2030.

In a heated exchange at their policy convention to prepare a platform for the 2022 elections, delegates backed a resolution in favor of raising the proposed emission reduction target levels from 45 percent of 1990 levels to 55 percent for 2030.

Quebec’s goal would be to be carbon neutral by 2050, the resolution says.

The current goal of the Avenir Québec Coalition is to reduce greenhouse gases to 37.5 percent of 1990 levels.

But in the wake of new science on the feasibility of further reducing gases and the debate at the COP-26 conference on climate change, members chose to go beyond the 55 percent target they had in their own draft of policy that was distributed to the riding association. before the convention that will take place this weekend in Montreal.

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The decision follows an earlier launch by QS co-spokespersons Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Manon Massé to create the “greenest political platform” of all parties that will campaign in the 2022 elections.

Nadeau-Dubois also advocated a realistic policy, saying that by setting a firm target of 65 percent, as some riding associations wanted, the party would lose credibility with voters.

“We don’t have to choose between ambition and viability,” Nadeau-Dubois told reporters. “We have to do both. We have to be the most credible and the most ambitious. This is what the climatic urgency demands. It is our historical responsibility ”.

Some members, however, pushed for more saying that only a 65 percent target will wake up the big polluters.

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“We can’t just put a band-aid on gangrene,” argued Hélène Bissonnette, a member of the international Collectif Tendance Marxist wing of QS.

In the end, members followed the advice of delegate Marc Bonhomme, who told the conference that going to 65 percent means leaving the current capitalist system entirely and living as a socialist state.

The plan adopted by QS also proposes to prohibit the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the territory of Quebec, as well as the creation of a vast public network of electric railway lines to transport people and goods.

QS would nationalize all renewable energy industries (solar or wind turbines) as a way to better plan for Quebec’s overall needs.

To end waste and increase the life of appliances and communications equipment, a QS government would prohibit planned obsolescence and guarantee the right to repair goods. Government royalties charged by companies that exploit Quebec’s water resources would rise dramatically.

Later, in a debate over QS’s plan to make Quebec an independent country, delegates voted in favor of a resolution to abolish the office of Lieutenant Governor of Quebec and end MNAs who swore allegiance to the Queen.

The conference continues on Saturday Sunday. About 400 QS delegates participate.

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Reference-montrealgazette.com

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