Nadeau-Dubois warns Montreal business audience about risks of climate inaction

Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois warned a Montreal business audience Thursday about the economic risks of climate inaction.

Speaking to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal at the Palais des congrès, Nadeau-Dubois announced that his party intends to invest $1 billion in the residual forest biomass sector in a first mandate and $1.5 billion in the battery industry — “two key sectors of the ecological transition.”

He also urged Chamber of Commerce members to join the fight against climate change, which he called the “heart” of Québec solidaire’s plan, and reiterated the importance of adapting mobility to a changing climate.

“Public transit is an extraordinary economic lever,” Nadeau-Dubois said. He went on to list several of his party’s projects, such as the extension of the métro’s blue and orange lines and “the former northern branch” of the REM de l’Est.

Nadeau-Dubois told attendees that “the real economic question is not to ask what are the risks of acting too quickly, but rather what are the risks of not acting quickly enough — the risks of climate passivity.”

Before his speech, Chamber of Commerce president Michel Leblanc reminded Nadeau-Dubois that some in the audience might not share his views.

“But your message on the climate emergency is getting through to the business community,” Leblanc stressed.

Nadeau-Dubois spoke to the business group a day after Coalition Avenir Québec head and outgoing premier François Legault addressed the same forum.

“As long as we have not stopped the decline of the French language, I think that for the Quebec nation that wants to protect the French language, it would be a bit suicidal to increase the immigration thresholds,” Legault told the business forum Wednesday.

Nadeau-Dubois responded Thursday morning by attacking Legault on the subject of immigration in the Montreal riding of Maurice-Richard.

He appeared before the media at the Sophie-Barat school with his local candidate, Haroun Bouazzi, to promise that Québec solidaire would accelerate the construction and renovation of Quebec schools. There, Nadeau-Dubois took issue with Legault and outgoing immigration minister Jean Boulet, who had also made controversial remarks on immigration.

“These are divisive remarks, they are unacceptable remarks, they are remarks that hurt people, and when François Legault speaks like that, he weakens the Quebec identity and he weakens social cohesion in Quebec,” Nadeau-Dubois said. “There are thousands of young immigrants who want to be part of Quebec and who work hard to integrate into Quebec society.”

“When François Legault points his finger at them,” what he is saying to them “is that they are not Quebecers,” Nadeau-Dubois added.

Asked whether he believed that Legault’s controversial remarks were part of a strategy to win over some voters, the Québec solidaire co-spokesperson said: “That’s the $100 question, is it voluntary, or involuntary? I am not in the head of François Legault, I cannot know,” said Nadeau-Dubois, adding that “the most important thing is not what François Legault is trying to do, but it is the impact of his words.”

Thursday was a busy day for Nadeau-Dubois, who also promised $1.6 billion for the construction and renovation of schools.

“To give our institutions a new look, we are talking about adding an additional $1.6 billion in capital in the next mandate to accelerate the construction, repair, expansion and greening of our schools,” he said.

“The Liberals have failed, the CAQ too, we are due to try a new team to implement everything, to restore their pride in our public schools,” he added.

Recent polls show that Québec solidaire and the CAQ are practically running neck-and-neck in voting intentions in the Maurice-Richard riding. The Liberal Party has won the riding in the last two elections, but incumbent Marie Montpetit, who was expelled from the party’s caucus last November, is not running.

In the 2018 election, the Liberals edged out Québec Solidaire by less than 2 percentage points.