Benoit Charette denounces “obstruction” from the opposition in the reform of the green Fund

Photo: Jacques Boissinot The canadian Press
“The three opposition parties are joining in this obstruction are virtually an accomplice,” said Benoit Charette, minister of the Environment.

The study of the reform of the green Fund of the government Legault parliamentary committee has advanced at a snail’s pace Wednesday.

The minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, took the opportunity to condemn “the obstruction” accomplice of the three opposition parties in the study of his bill 44 which seeks to reform the management of the envelope of the green Fund.

“I’m not sure that the signal is positive [for the population],” said Mr. Charest, referring to a debate which lasted for two hours on a sub-amendment.

“It is there that the population won “, he added, while the liberal critic for the Environment, Carlos Leitao, defended the right of opposition members to table amendments and to make use of their speaking time.

After 55 hours of work, as of Wednesday morning, the elected officials had adopted an article and a half in 55 hours… on 77 articles. At this rate, they will have to spend more than 2000 hours of parliamentary committee to study the legislative text, according to the estimate of the minister.

In an interview with The canadian Press on Wednesday, Mr. Charette has not been shy to denounce the “obstructive tactics” of the opposition.

“The three opposition parties are joining in this obstruction are virtually an accomplice “, he said.

The parliamentary commission that is studying the bill still sits this week, and Mr. Charette ensures that it is ready to spend even a few weeks of the summer to take forward its reform and to adopt it.

This bill is one of the few that the government caquiste was considered enough of a priority to be studied in this period of a pandemic. Mr. Charette argues that the adoption of the draft law will ” boost the economy in an emissions reduction target of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.” Indeed, the minister might as well invest the money raised in the Fund in green projects.

Currently, it is an independent committee that manages the money and it has been repeatedly criticized for having invested in controversial projects that have not necessarily served to reduce GHG emissions.

Mr. Charette to suspect the liberals of blocking the bill because it changes the rules that they themselves had put in place when they formed the government.

With respect to the “obstruction” of Québec solidaire (QS), the minister is of the opinion that their interventions in parliamentary committee are unrealistic : they are ” people who will not have to assume power for a period of time and which do not have to be anchored in reality “.

Finally, Mr. Charette argued that the Parti quebecois wants to make to the project of law 44 ” a law other than that which is studied, with elements that neutralise completely the spirit of the bill “.

Recall that the green Fund serves to finance projects that aim to reduce GHG emissions. Year after year, the green Fund, which accumulates a little more than a billion dollars in its coffers, primarily from the sale of emission rights on the carbon market, but also the charges payable for the disposal of waste materials and for the use of the water.

The opposition parties charge that the government abolish the board of management of the green Fund, which is independent, to entrust the prize pool to $ 2 billion directly to the minister of the Environment, opening the door to arbitrariness on the supporter.