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Montreal, June 6, 2024 - Équiterre welcomes Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon's Bill 69 on the governance of Quebec's energy resources with many reservations.
"We understand the importance of modernizing the law in a context of energy transition and decarbonization, but this government wants to develop our energy capacities without properly defining what our future needs will be," says Marc-André Viau, Équiterre's Director of Government Relations.
"It's also dictating the rules of the game without first establishing what types of energy we will be able to explore, via the integrated energy resource management plan," he adds.
Équiterre is nonetheless in favour of the creation of the Fonds d'aide à la clientèle domestique (a Domestic Customer Assistance Fund), made necessary by the costs that will be generated in order to strongly develop energy capacities.
"A major issue with this bill is that the government is talking out of both sides of its mouth. The minister stresses the importance of sobriety and reducing consumption, but the real objective is to accelerate energy production. It's pretty inconsistent," says Marc-André Viau.
Is the environment really a priority?
Équiterre is also concerned about the shift towards privatization of certain activities, as well as the concentration of powers in the hands of the Minister, particularly with regard to modifying the integrated resource management plan.
In addition, although the government mentions the importance of taking environmental concerns into account in its decisions, these are not clearly defined, leaving doubt as to their scope. All the more concerning since the bill is very clear: its framework policy on climate change will have to be adjusted into the integrated resource plan, instead of the other way around.
Équiterre also fears further weakening of environmental regulations as a result of the hasty timeline of this bill.
Équiterre will be studying the bill in greater depth, and intends to submit its proposals and comments to the government during the upcoming public debates and consultations.
