Legault used to rail against ‘dirty energy.’ Now, his tone is changing

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OTTAWA — A few years ago, Quebec Premier François Legault caused an uproar in Western Canada by calling Alberta oil “dirty energy.” Today, that same oil seems a little cleaner, because the premier is opening the door to a new pipeline in the province.

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“For the moment, there is no project on the table. If there is a project on the table, we will look at it,” said Legault during question period at the National Assembly.

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Energy East, a 4,500 km pipeline that would have carried 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from Alberta to the Irving refinery in New Brunswick, was officially proposed in 2013 by TransCanada (TC Energy) and abandoned in 2017 due to regulatory hurdles in Canada and strong opposition from environmental groups. The project was estimated at over $15 billion at the time.

The project was also very unpopular in Quebec. The provincial government never signed on to it because it saw few benefits and the pipeline route would have to cross several rivers, which raised concerns among Quebecers.

“We need social acceptability for a project like this. If there is a project, we will look at it,” said Legault.

His comments come as a SOM-La Presse poll suggested Thursday that 59 per cent of Quebecers would be in favour of a new Energy East project.

Legault’s apparent openness has sparked outrage from Québec Solidaire, the left-wing separatist second opposition party in the National Assembly.

QS co-leader Ruba Ghazal said that “Alberta’s dirty energy sellers are teaming up with” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Quebec Conservative Party Leader Éric Duhaime “to force us to swallow two pipelines.”

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The other pipeline she was referring to is GNL Québec, a $14-billion pipeline with a terminal in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean that the Legault government rejected in 2021 due to environmental concerns. Quebec Environment Minister Benoît Charette recently said that if the project was environmentally friendly, his government would study it.

But neither of those projects are underway.

“Energy East, GNL Quebec or any pipeline project that destroys our environment and calls into question our carbon neutrality objectives are bad projects, period,” she added.

Quebec was one of the first jurisdictions in North America to have given up the exploitation and exploration of hydrocarbons and so, Ghazal wanted the National Assembly to adopt a motion asking the provincial government to “oppose the development of any pipeline project on its territory.”

Both the Coalition Avenir Québec government and the Quebec Liberal Party voted against.

The Parti Québécois voted in favour of the motion. The PQ was in government when TC first proposed the Energy East project. The environment minister at the time, Yves-François Blanchet, is now the leader of the Bloc Québécois.

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“I am fiercely opposed to any kind of transport on Quebec territory of hydrocarbons from Western Canada to any market whatsoever. It does not serve Quebec. It does not serve the environment. It does not serve the planet,” he recently said.

National Post
atrepanier@postmedia.com

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