Fall Session of Quebec National Assembly
Privatization of Public Services and Sellout of Natural Resources Resumes Big Time
On September 10, 2024, the fall
session of the Quebec National Assembly
opened with an agenda which pursues the privatization of
public
services and sell-out of natural resources on an ever
grander
scale. A
series of bills steps up the sellout of natural resources
and
makes the
people pay
for the infrastructure needed to serve this sellout. All
of it
contributes to transportation and energy corridors and
the
supply chain
of
critical minerals needed by the U.S. war economy.
Before the National Assembly adjourned for the summer, on May 9, the Legault government tabled Bill 61, An Act enacting the Act respecting Mobilité Infra Québec and amending certain provisions relating to shared transportation. This new agency -- Mobilité Infra Québec -- will have a board of directors and sole jurisdiction over a complex transport project entrusted to it by the government.
Bill 62, An Act mainly to diversify the acquisition strategies of public bodies and increase their agility in carrying out infrastructure projects, also tabled on May 9, introduces the term "partnership contract ... using a collaborative approach" in place of the term "public-private partnership" (P3) which has now been abandoned.
What the government calls a "new type of contract" and "using a collaborative approach" is in fact a well-known method of paying narrow private interests to do the work of the civil service. The supranational "consulting firm" McKinsey & Company says that since its formation in 1926, "McKinsey has operated as a single global partnership united by a strong set of values, and the drive to deliver positive, enduring change." It was also contracted by the federal government to set up the Canada Infrastructure Bank, while a former McKinsey partner ended up as CEO of this bank to offer contracts to McKinsey.
Bills 61 and 62 on infrastructure projects demonstrate Legault's intention to intensify privatization in awarding public infrastructure projects, including Hydro-Québec's expansion projects.
On June 6, the former Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, tabled Bill 69, An Act to ensure the responsible governance of energy resources and to amend various legislative provisions, in the National Assembly. The bill is integral to the restructuring of the state to better serve major supranational private interests, and more specifically to integrate Quebec's electricity resources into the U.S. energy transport corridors. Bill 69 will give the Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy new powers, including "establishing and implementing an integrated energy resource management plan" for Quebec. It is already public knowledge that Hydro-Québec has signed contracts to export what it calls "green electricity" to the United States, and other schemes are in the pipeline.
Quebec's subsurface has also been made available for plundering with Bill 63, An Act to amend the Mining Act and other provisions, tabled on May 28 by Quebec's Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina. Environmental organizations have strongly opposed the bill, which they say is far from putting an end to the archaic "free mining" regime. This concept gives mining companies all sorts of privileges to extract coveted critical minerals from Quebec's subsurface, not only by the electric vehicle industry, but also by the U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) for its war industry.
Last
May, for example, the DoD and Natural Resources Canada
provided
tens of
millions of dollars in funding for Lomiko Metal's
feasibility
study for
a graphite mine in the Petite Nation region of
south-western
Quebec. On
September 26, the same DoD announced $18 million in
funding for
a
British
Columbia company called Nano One Materials. The company
has set
up a
pilot plant in Candiac, south of Montreal, to produce
lithium
iron
phosphate (LFP), the only plant of its kind in North
America.
LFP is the active material in the cathodes of rechargeable lithium-iron-phosphate batteries. As far back as 2016, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) gave Hydro-Québec's research and development nearly $10 million for a portable rechargeable lithium-cobalt-phosphate battery. This was achieved in 2018 to the Pentagon's specifications.
Contingent in action for
the environment September 27, oppose mining in Petit
Nation
region and
others
in Quebec.
All this illustrates that these laws scheduled to be adopted by the National Assembly this fall are far from being for purposes of developing an economy that serves first and foremost to ensure the energy security of Quebec and Canada and to build an economy that serves the needs of the people. These laws and the schemes that accompany them are a way of making Quebec's natural resources available to the U.S. war economy.
The people of Quebec and Canada do not subscribe to such an outlook that disinforms on what the real issues are when it comes to fighting for a bright future for themselves and for all of humanity. More specifically, they reject this notion that a "green" economy means that Quebec and Canada's economies should be integrated into the U.S. war machine or be subject to pay-the-rich schemes.
This article was published
in
Volume 54 Numbers 8-9 - September 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54081.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca