Quebec urged to abandon Fitzgibbon's energy bill

Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press “The bill must be withdrawn,” demands Liberal energy critic Marwah Rizqy, who was about to begin studying Bill 69 on energy.

Boris Proulx and François Carabin in Gatineau and Rouyn-Noranda

Published at 11:36 Updated at 20:50

• Québec

The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) and Quebec solidaire (QS) are demanding that the Legault government abandon the energy reform bill drafted by “superminister” Pierre Fitzgibbon, after he confirmed his resignation on Wednesday.

“The bill must be withdrawn. We must hold a national consultation [first],” demanded Liberal energy critic Marwah Rizqy.

The opposition MP was preparing to begin studying Bill 69 on energy next Tuesday, her first day in the National Assembly after leaving for maternity leave. She now believes that it would be inappropriate to debate the text in a few days with Minister Fitzgibbon’s replacement, whose identity is not yet known.

“We cannot sit on Tuesday morning [next week] with a minister who was sworn in two and a quarter minutes ago, who does not know the complexity of this bill,” said the Saint-Laurent MP, who met with her Liberal colleagues in a Gatineau hotel this week.

QS co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois also set the abandonment of Bill 69 as a “condition for moving forward,” as he indicated on the social network X. In a written statement, his colleague, the energy critic, Haroun Bouazzi, returned to the charge by also calling for a “national consultation” with a view to drafting a plan that would precede the tabling of a new bill.

“At least [Mr. Fitzgibbon’s resignation] is an opportunity for the government to do things differently when it comes to the energy transition. The CAQ must move from contempt and arrogance to an approach based on consultation and democratic participation,” he wrote.

Quebec’s Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, confirmed Wednesday that he was leaving his position at the request of Premier François Legault. He denied being involved in any “quarrel” within the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ). On energy matters, he assured that, even if he leaves, “it’s not [his] project that’s leaving.”

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

PQ asks for time

For his part, Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon was more conciliatory on Wednesday than his opposition colleagues. While he wants the government to take its time before starting to study the bill, he does not require it to start from scratch.

“Having studied it as a team […], it is a bill that is complex and even unintelligible in some places,” maintained the PQ leader during a press scrum in Rouyn-Noranda, where his caucus met on the eve of the parliamentary session. “To say that someone who has not worked on this file, has not prepared this bill, will be able to have full control of the subject next week is simply not being honest with the opposition parties, the stakeholders and the population. »

A “suspension” of Bill 69 was also requested by some twenty organizations from the environmental community — Équiterre, Greenpeace and the David Suzuki Foundation, in particular — and from the union community, including the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) and the Syndicat des spécialistes et professionnels d'Hydro-Québec.

“[The] directions [of the bill] were neither presented to the population in the party's electoral platform nor debated; they were instead determined by a small number of people, including Minister Fitzgibbon himself, behind closed doors,” criticizes the collective letter posted online Wednesday.

Conflict over rates ?

The energy reform proposed by Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, encapsulated in Bill 69, plans in particular to allow the modulation of residential electricity rates. At the same time, Quebec Premier François Legault promised that Hydro-Québec rates will “never” increase by more than 3% per year.

Liberal Marwah Rizqy detects an unacknowledged conflict between Mr. Fitzgibbon and Premier Legault over electricity rates. “Clearly, the heart of the dispute between these two men was over intellectual honesty. […] Pierre Fitzgibbon has the intellectual honesty to say no, [the electricity bill] is going to go up, expect increases,” she analyzes.

The study of Bill 69 should in principle begin next week in the National Assembly. However, no minister has been named to succeed Pierre Fitzgibbon; the swearing-in will take place on Thursday, Premier François Legault announced on Wednesday.