Meeting Al Gore turned Couillard ‘greener than Shrek’, opposition says
One handshake with Al Gore and Premier Philippe Couillard turned “greener than Shrek,” an opposition MNA charged Wednesday as the war of words over oil and shale development on Anticosti Island boiled over.
But the Liberals fired back it was former Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois who started dabbling in oil in her zeal to make Quebec energy independent.
She was in charge when the Quebec government signed a contract with an oil consortium to conduct test drilling for oil and gas on the Gulf of St-Lawrence Island before any environmental impact assessment studies were conducted, Liberal environment minister David Heurtel fired back.
The Liberals, he said, have got things in the right order and have commissioned studies on the potential impact of testing on the island’s water table
“We’re going to base ourselves (in decision-making) on science, not on opinions, not on rumours,” Heurtel said.
The exchange took place during a legislature debate Wednesday over a Coalition Avenir Québec motion designed to embarrass the government for its handling of the issue.
The motion asked the legislature to recognize the harmful effects if the government opts to tear up the old PQ government’s contract with Pétrolia and two other oil companies to search for oil and shale gas on Anticosti.
Premier Philippe Couillard has said he will have no part in the destruction of Anticosti to hunt for oil.
The Liberals easily defeated the motion in the legislature — 63 votes against and 44 in favour — but it forced all sides to air their views.
For CAQ MNA Chantal Soucy the trouble over Anticosti started in December when Couillard attended the climate change summit in Paris.
“After a handshake with (former United States vice-president) Al Gore, the premier changed completely,” Soucy said. “Converted, completely unrecognizable, greener than Shrek, the premier said he no longer believed in natural gas.”
Back home, saving Anticosti became Couillard’s obsession and he started to impose his will, Soucy said.
But Liberal Energy Minister Pierre Arcand said it was Marois who got the ball rolling on Anticosti after a 2008 visit to oil-rich Norway when she was still opposition leader.
That sparked PQ MNAs to defend their decision, insisting the only way to confirm one way or another what lies underground Anticosti is to allow the test drilling to proceed.
But Québec solidaire MNA Manon Massé urged her fellow politicians to get a grip.
“This planet does not belong to the economy,” Massé said. “It belongs to the people who live on it.”
In another twist, a prominent Liberal and owner of a hunting and fishing camp on Anticosti caught
We’re going to base ourselves (in decisionmaking) on science, not on opinions, not on rumours.
the government by surprise when he said he has no problem with oil exploration on the island.
Marcel Dutil, founder of the Manac and Group Canam steel companies, says he has seen oil prospectors come and go on the island over the last 30 years.
“Anticosti Island is huge,” he said. “It’s 225 km long. Leave Quebec and drive to Montreal, it’s the same distance. Drilling a few holes here and there (on the island) won’t change much.”