Mr. Guilbeault, you are legally required to act. We are also required to achieve the greenhouse gas emissions targets we set for ourselves.
And yet, I see a million inconsistencies. You shelled out $34 billion to buy a pipeline, but your most ambitious plan for the energy transition cost only $40 billion. So, on the one hand, a single oil and gas project cost $34 billion. On the other, the most ambitious project in your department’s history to fight climate change and make the energy transition cost $40 billion. That is appallingly inconsistent, but I know that you can live with it, because in politics, we sometimes have to compromise.
Today, I am asking you to compromise so that plenty of small communities in Quebec—including La Tuque, where you’re from—can keep living off the forestry sector, keep using wood to build low carbon residential units and keep replacing high carbon footprint products through the bioeconomy.
If you go forward, you threaten it all. According to the very conservative analysis you provided—which is not an insult—the impact of the order will leave 55 businesses out in the cold. Those 55 businesses are, for the most part, in small devitalized communities. I understand you are required to issue this order, but I think the government is not even close to a compromise. The best decision you could make is to wait, listen more to Quebec and try to find a compromise together.