The Legault government is severely judging the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction plan presented by the federal government.
Quebec has a "better financed and more rigorous" approach than that of the Trudeau government, according to the CAQ Environment Minister Benoit Charette.
Quebec will spend $7.7 billion over five years to reduce GHGs, while acknowledging that more needs to be done to reach the target, while the federal government believes that $9 billion over eight years across the country will be enough to reach its reduction target, he noted.
"It's a bit ironic," he said in a press scrum at the National Assembly. "I wish them luck."
Charette lamented that his federal counterpart Steven Guilbeault's plan lacks specifics, as well as tools to track progress year after year.
The ambition is "clearly" on the Quebec side, Charette continued.
The federal plan targets the oil and gas industry in particular, which is virtually absent from Quebec. However, Charette said he hopes that Quebec can also benefit from federal measures and funding to help it achieve its GHG reduction targets.
Note that the Legault government's Green Plan calls for a 37.5 per cent reduction in GHG emissions by 2030, in line with the international obligations of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
However, the CAQ plan is incomplete, as it includes measures to achieve about 50 per cent of the target, or nearly 15 megatonnes of GHGs out of 29, and remains silent on what needs to be done for the remaining 50 per cent.
LISTEN ON CJAD 800 RADIO: Montreal got funding to help fight climate change. How will that money be used? Valerie Plante explains
- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 30, 2022
