Anti-National Agenda of Legault Government in Quebec
"Québec Flagship" -- Hydro-Québec Loses Its Moorings
On the day Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister in the Legault government responsible for the Economy, Innovation and Energy, was sworn in as a cabinet minister, he declared that in Quebec, "we consume far too much electricity, as residents." Quebeckers are entitled to ask why he says so when there is no dearth of electricity in Quebec for which, as residents, they are always made to pay more and more.
A budget advisor at the Association coopérative d'économie familiale (ACEF) du Nord de Montréal reacted to the statement in a letter published in Le Devoir. In her letter, she reminds us how energy is essential in our daily lives: to heat, eat, wash, be healthy, work and study. She questions the Legault government's plan to give priority to energy-intensive businesses.
And this precisely is where the truth of the Legault government's
agenda to green the economy can be seen. The writer appropriately
raises the issue of Hydro-Québec's change of vocation because
Quebeckers have always been told that the nationalization of private
electricity companies 60 years ago
was done in order to be "masters of our own house." This really is no
longer the case as is especially evident when it comes to electrical
energy. Hydro-Québec has lost its moorings as a result of the
pay-the-rich schemes of subsequent governments since the early nineties
when neo-liberalism set the
direction of the economy to the detriment of the people, their society
and nation-building.
In a speech given by François Legault at the swearing-in of his cabinet ministers on October 20, he announced the creation of a "Committee on the Economy and Energy Transition." The program is to further concentrate decision-making power in the hands of his cabinet where narrow private interests now rule.
These large private interests are represented at Hydro-Québec meetings by private firms such as McKinsey. Sylvain Audette, an associate member of the Chair in Energy Sector Management at the École des hautes études commerciales (HEC) in Montreal, had this to say about the presence of this powerful U.S. consulting firm in Hydro-Québec meetings: "These consultants, even if they sign a confidentiality clause, if they do a mandate for another [client], their brains are not erased." At meetings in which consultants participate, they "may have access to information that is not necessarily covered by confidentiality agreements," he explained.
To be kept in mind is that, alarmingly, it is the intelligence agencies and the U.S. war machine who are calling the shots as an integral part of these narrow private interests. Whereas all infrastructure and facilities must be modernized as a result of the developments of the technical and scientific revolution and ending the use of fossil fuels is urgent, the fundamental question remains who the economy serves. To sell out the natural and human resources of the country and put them at the disposal of the U.S. war machine in the name of "greening the economy" is cynical indeed. Quebeckers will not accept this kind of "nationalism" on the part of any government no matter what its political stripes.
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 52 - December
2, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520521.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca