Photo: Jacques Boissinot archives The Canadian Press “We should urgently look into the fate of regional media,” PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said on Tuesday.
Caroline Plante – The Canadian Press in Quebec
3:32 p.m.
- Quebec
Part of the money that was to be used to build Blue Spaces throughout Quebec must now be redirected to regional media, estimates PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
At a press briefing in Quebec on Tuesday, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon returned to the abandonment, by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), of the project to build 18 new museums called “Blue Spaces” .
When announcing the project in 2021, Prime Minister François Legault promised that these Blue Spaces would be dedicated to Quebec culture and would not compete with already established museums.
An initial construction budget of $259 million was planned.
Three years later, the CAQ threw in the towel, citing costs that were too high. Building a Blue Space in each region of Quebec would have cost nearly $1 billion, confirmed the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, on Monday.
“All kinds of projects bling-bling”
Denouncing a “dramatically poorly put together” CAQ project, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon suggested Tuesday that part of the envelope be reallocated to the artistic and media circles.
“We should urgently look into the fate of regional media,” declared the PQ leader, who presented his own media aid plan last January in Alma.
“There are crises […] which are documented, for which we are still waiting for a plan or an intervention, and during this time, the CAQ engaged in all kinds of projects bling-bling […] which were based on nothing. »
“If the CAQ cares about people in the artistic and media sectors, it would be a sign of humility to move part of these funds towards the glaring and documented needs in these sectors,” he said. added.
When he presented his aid plan to the media, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon notably deplored the end of printing of Coops de l'information newspapers.
Bell, Quebecor and CBC/Radio-Canada had also just announced cuts affecting hundreds of artisans.
Cultural infrastructures
Responding to the leader of the Parti Québécois on the X network on Tuesday, Minister Lacombe first declared that he agreed with the idea of supporting the media and that he would continue to do so. do.
“But in this case, we are talking about investments in infrastructure,” he explained.
“These are therefore amounts provided for in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI). They will be reallocated to cultural infrastructure projects, which really need them,” he said.
Before burying the Blue Spaces project, the Legault government also axed the Blue Basket, this Quebec online sales platform.
In recent years, the CAQ has also backed down on four-year-old kindergartens and its project to build a third Quebec-Lévis highway link.
“We lost the Blue Spaces and the Blue Basket simultaneously. […] They have one thing in common: it was really marketing when it was announced and it was really poorly put together,” mocked Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
“This will be the signature of the CAQ after eight years: […] many announcements based on what could be fashionable, […] almost no planning as to costs and implementation,” he added.
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- Quebec buries its Blue Spaces network project
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