MONTREAL—Who knew the Coalition Avenir Quebec had a green side?

The leader of Quebec’s second opposition called for a “great national cleanup” along the polluted banks of the St-Lawrence River on Sunday as a centerpiece of his party’s Plan Sud.

Meeting with the CAQ faithful at a congress in Boucherville, Francois Legault pitched the cleanup as the start of his plan for an economic renaissance in Quebec.

A counterpoint to the resource heavy Plan Nord put forward by former Liberal Premier Jean Charest, Legault’s Plan Sud would focus on the St-Lawrence Valley between Montreal and Quebec City.

Tapping the province’s research universities while redirecting government tax credits to a network of new industrial parks and “life centres,” Legault has called for a Silicon Valley on the St-Lawrence. The two-year old party hopes to deliver high-quality jobs.

“Right now when you ask the mayor of Montreal where to put new companies on the island of Montreal the answer is that we have no space available,” said Legault. “We want to decontaminate used land and resell it in a plan to create a [valley of] innovation.”

Speaking to 400 caquistes a day after first revealing the plan, Legault told his party that the widespread decontamination would be expensive, but the former businessman maintained that it was a “value-added” proposition.

According to the CAQ, over 500 contaminated sites exist on the South Shore alone.

The CAQ's finance critic said his party can do what the others have not been able to do, reinvigorate the industrial economy while giving urban wastelands new life.

“We can get every Quebecer to feel that we don’t need to look down anymore, we need to look up,” said Christian Dube.

Legault practically encouraged the Parti Quebecois and provincial Liberals to steal parts of the plan, calling the economy his number one priority.

Party members say the St-Lawrence project is just what they needed to complete the CAQ’s image as a reform party. Legault admits it might be tricky to get the government, businesses and cities together for the project.

“The coalition was formed to move beyond the battles and arguments of the past and to bring Quebec into the 21st century,” said Legault.

The full cost of the project won’t be known until the fall.