Quebec green plan soothes status quo
Monday’s launch of Quebec’s big green plan tends to cosset suburbanites, says Jonathan Montpetit in his analysis of what the plan does, and what it fails to do. Monday, hearing François Legault say on radio that he hopes to encourage people and not to pass laws to force the issue, my heart also sank, realizing he’s not willing to sacrifice any suburban votes for his green “principles.”
This blog doesn’t specifically follow environmental news, although this plan is too big to be ignored.
Don’t forget I also keep up a Twitter feed following environmental news, emphasizing local news but with other relevant links. Most enviro news goes there, but Quebec is putting a lot of money into what Montpetit seems to think are fairly toothless ideas, so I thought it worth a post.
DeWolf 11:35 on 2020-11-17 Permalink
When I read the headlines that Legault was pushing for the “electrification of transport” I was excited to read about all the new tramways and metro lines and intercity trains, only to realize that what he actually meant was… electric cars. You know, the most expensive and inefficient form of electric transport, the kind of thing that allows us to pretend we don’t need to significantly change the way our cities are built or how we live, we just need to get a car that plugs into the wall and voilà, problems solved.
Of course there was also some vague support for public transit projects, some of which the CAQ has already threatened to cancel (Blue Line extension, Quebec’s tramway…).
JP 11:39 on 2020-11-17 Permalink
Suggesting tramways, metro lines and intercity trains does nothing for his support base. He has to propose a solution that is viable for them if he wants to be politically successful, and so his plan can’t remove cars.
Em 12:20 on 2020-11-17 Permalink
I ready this article yesterday, and it made me wonder if it’s a losing battle.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-the-future-of-the-city-includes-the-future-of-the-suburb-which/
It’s not about Montreal or Quebec specifically. Rather, it points out that the majority of Canadians live in suburbs, they want backyards and big trucks, and they don’t want to be pushed to change, especially from so-called “urban elites.” I understand it comes from a conservative point of view, and that not everybody in the suburbs feel this way, but a lot do.
Forcing a bunch of change on people who don’t want it is never going to go over well for any politician.
GC 19:01 on 2020-11-17 Permalink
“hopes to encourage people and not to pass laws to force the issue” We’ve seen how well that works out, with the pandemic!
Chris 21:06 on 2020-11-17 Permalink
Amazing that you can get an $8000 subsidy to buy a car, but you have to pay sales tax to buy a bicycle. Sigh.
>Forcing a bunch of change on people who don’t want it is never going to go over well for any politician.
I dunno. Politicians have forced a lot of change on people ‘because covid’, and incumbents have been reelected in New Brunswick, British Columbia, and elsewhere. So it’s possible. The difficulty is that covid is a short term problem and humans are pretty good at short term problems, but we really suck at long term problems like global warming.