Election outcome unlikely to affect lifeline for Gaspé Peninsula.
Whether the Liberals or Parti Québécois form a government on April 7, taxpayers are on the hook for nearly half the cost of building a $1-billion cement plant along the Gaspé Peninsula.
The project will bring an estimated 400 jobs to a region where the unemployment rate — at 16 per cent — is double the national average.
During its construction, about 2,300 locals will be enlisted to build the factory, which local politicians say will give the region’s shipping industry a much needed jump-start.
There’s a consensus in the coastal town of Port-Daniel-Gascons that the region is doomed without a project on the scale of this one, Mayor Henri Grenier said.
“We’re struggling here, we need something to help bring us back on our feet,” Grenier noted. “Our kids grow up and they feel like there’s nothing for them here. So they leave, and some never come back. It would be fair to say about 95 per cent of people in this town want the factory.”
But since the project was announced by the PQ government in January, critics of the cement plant have multiplied. Environmentalists note that the PQ agreed to the project without holding public hearings as to the impact the factory would have on the Gaspé’s ecology.
Because the original proposal for the plant came in 1995, before provincial environmental laws were tightened, PQ Leader Pauline Marois said it is exempt from public hearings.
“If this factory is operating at full capacity, it will become the biggest producer of industrial greenhouse gases in Quebec,” said Patrick Bonin of Greenpeace Canada. “Think about that for a second. Why not hold public hearings to at least have a debate about this?”
The coke fuel-powered facility will pump an estimated 2 million to 3 million tonnes of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere every year — increasing Quebec’s emission by 2 per cent.
“With the reality of climate change being as serious as it is, now is not the time to use public funds to increase emissions,” Bonin said. “Especially not when the government says it has no money for public transit or green energy.”
Meanwhile, the president of the Cement Association of Canada said Quebec already produces more than enough cement to meet the current demand. The province’s plants produce 3.7 million tonnes of cement every year — with 1.7 million tonnes consumed locally and about 700,000 shipped to the U.S. That leaves about 1.3 million tonnes unused every year.
The Port-Daniel-Gascons plant is slated to produce 2.2 million tonnes of cement annually by 2016. Supporters of the project say an increase in the recovering American construction industry will fuel demand.
Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault is the project’s most high-profile opponent. During the first televised debate, he scored one of the evening’s most memorable lines when he said he “loves Gaspésie, but not gas pillage (the French word for waste).”
Why should Quebecers pay for a factory they don’t need with money they don’t have, Legault asked. The CAQ leader accused the PQ of using the factory to shore up support in the Bonaventure riding — which the party snagged from the Liberals in 2012. He accused the Liberals of supporting the proposed plant in a bid to win the seat back.
The PQ is pledging a $250-million loan to McInnis Cement for construction costs. Quebec’s provincial investment fund is kicking in another $100 million and Marois has guaranteed the factory a 10-year tax holiday with a promise of low electricity costs.
Despite all of the apparent drawbacks of the cement plant, Grenier sees it as a sorely needed lifeline for his people. During the past few decades, the Gaspé has been hit with plant closures, massive layoffs and a seasonal fishing- and forestry-based economy that’s far too sensitive to market fluctuations.
Most recently, 500 people lost their jobs when the Gaspésia Pulp and Paper factory shut in 1999.
With its scenic coastline and the laid-back attitude of its residents, Grenier said the Gaspé occupies a special place in the imagination of most Quebecers. But at this rate, Grenier said, it’s hard to tell if life in the region can continue to be financially sustainable without some sort of game-changing project.