Montreal’s mayor rejected Coalition Avenir Quebec’s plan to reduce the number of newcomers to the province as immigration remained at the forefront of the election campaign Monday.
Valerie Plante said she found it difficult to accept the Coalition’s proposed plan to reduce the annual number to 40,000 from 50,000 given a labour shortage in her city and elsewhere in Quebec.
Immigration is a hot-button issue, with Coalition Leader Francois Legault facing repeated questions on his party’s stance in recent days.
Cutting immigration is a central tenet of the Coalition platform, which includes a proposal to reduce immigration by 20 per cent and require newcomers pass a French and values test within three years of arrival as a condition of staying in the province.
Legault said Sunday he was on “solid ground” with his immigration proposals, despite having incorrectly answered a question on the subject a day earlier about how long a permanent resident had to wait before applying for citizenship.
Plante didn’t address the subject or take a position when she met with Legault earlier in the campaign, but pressed by reporters while meeting with Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard, Plante said the reason for her disapproval is a lack of manpower in Montreal where three per cent of jobs remain vacant.
“I share that problem with mayors across the province, that’s something we talk a lot about,” Plante said. “The question is what needs to be done to support good integration.”
Plante said Montreal, which receives about 65 per cent of immigrants, will stay a very welcoming city. And she’s willing to share some of Montreal’s experience with other regions so they too can benefit from immigration.
“We need to consider it in a very pragmatic way,” Plante said. “To me it’s an asset, immigrants entering the work force, entering the society is an asset.”
With Legault in debate preparation, it was up to fellow Coalition candidates to defend their leader.
Francois Bonnardel said despite Legault’s missteps, he called his leader an expert on immigration.
“Of course Mr. Legault is an expert in immigration,” said Bonnardel, whose party’s announcement about enlarging the scope of medically-assisted dying and a $5 million investment in Alzheimer’s research was overshadowed by the immigration issue.
Bonnardel said Quebecers have known for two years what his party’s plan was on immigration.
“We know the situation, we know the subject, we said to Quebecers what we want to do, we want the 40,000 immigrants to be a success,” he said.
Couillard, who on Day 26 promised $1,000 to Quebecers who buy an electric vehicle, was also asked about immigration.
The Liberal leader said with 100,000 jobs to fill this year and an estimated 1.3 million in the coming decade, it would be a mistake to reduce the immigration levels.
“I believe that Quebecers will in significant numbers make the province a welcoming place after Oct. 1,” Couillard said.
Elsewhere, the Parti Quebecois said they would favour local companies and overhaul the premise of using the lowest bidder for public contracts to factor in other elements like environment, labour rights and French.
The sovereigntist party says that would make it more difficult for corruption and collusion among entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, Quebec solidaire said it would ensure certain appointments are made by the legislature and not by the government alone, to avoid partisanship.
The Canadian Press
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland delivers the federal budget in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. Industry watchers say Tuesday’s federal budget likely won’t be enough to convince Canadian oil and gas companies to pull the trigger on expensive, emissions-reducing carbon capture and storage projects. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
By Amanda Stephenson in Calgary
A question mark continues to hang over the future of carbon capture and storage projects in Canada, in spite of a pledge in Tuesday’s federal budget to deliver more investment certainty for major emissions-reducing projects.
“Look, we have set some very aggressive climate targets in Canada. You can’t kick the can down the road,” said carbon capture advocate James Millar, arguing that’s exactly what the federal government did Tuesday when it provided no additional details around its previously stated intention to reduce the risk of investing in pricey emissions-reduction projects by essentially guaranteeing the future price of carbon.
“The difference comes down to investment certainty in the U.S., versus the promise of investment certainty in Canada.”
As president and CEO of the International CCS (carbon capture and storage) Knowledge Centre, a non-profit organization based in Regina, Millar had been closely watching Tuesday’s budget in hopes of obtaining more federal support for the expensive technology that can be used to trap harmful greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes and store them safely underground.
Heavy emitters — in particular, the oil and gas sector — have identified carbon capture and storage technology as key to helping the sector meet its emissions reduction targets and have been looking for government incentives akin to what is being offered south of the border, where the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act promises to pay companies a guaranteed US$85 price for each tonne of injected carbon.
While Canada has already announced an investment tax credit that will help to offset some of the up-front capital costs of carbon capture projects, companies have so far been hesitant to pull the trigger and go ahead with proposed large-scale projects.
The Pathways Alliance, for example, a consortium of oilsands companies, has proposed building a $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage transportation line to combat emissions from existing oilsands infrastructure in northern Alberta.
But the group has not yet made a final investment decision, saying it needs to know its project will be competitive with those in the U.S. before proceeding.
One thing the oil and gas sector has said will help with that is some kind of mechanism that would reduce the risk to companies that the federal price on carbon could be lowered or eliminated. If a new government were to be elected and remove or change Canada’s carbon pricing system, investing in expensive carbon-reducing technology could suddenly become uneconomical.
On Tuesday, the federal government reiterated that it intends to create such a mechanism through a so-called carbon contracts for difference system — but disappointed many who were hoping for details. Instead, the government announced it plans to begin consultations around the development of such a program.
Millar said while he doesn’t doubt the government’s good intentions, companies that have proposed large-scale projects need to get moving now if they have any hope of meeting Canada’s goal to reduce this country’s overall emissions by 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 looms.
“We’re already in 2023, we’re seven years out. The consultations that were announced yesterday will take months,” he said. “I think it will take at least a year because it’s going to take time to set up the process.”
The Pathways Alliance itself took a diplomatic tone Tuesday, issuing a statement after the tabling of the budget saying it was “encouraged” by the signal that more policy certainty is coming, and adding it looks forward to a “better understanding” of the government’s intentions.
But Greg Pardy of RBC Capital said in a research note that in spite of some enhancements to the previously announced investment tax credit, budgetary support for carbon capture and storage was “somewhat limited — perhaps even disappointing.”
“In our view, Canada’s federal government needs to shift into much higher gear when it comes to incentivizing decarbonization investment if it is to achieve its bold climate change ambitions,” Pardy said.
A report from BMO Capital Markets published just before the release of Tuesday’s budget said Canada’s policy framework for large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage disadvantages producers here compared to the U.S., “despite claims to the contrary from some proponents of the environmental lobby.”
Environmentalists have been critical of any additional federal support for carbon capture, calling it akin to a subsidy for oil and gas companies that enables them to increase production when the world should be scaling down fossil fuel usage.
But the BMO report said carbon capture is an essential part of the energy transition, and without offering improved incentives to keep up with the U.S., Canada risks not meeting its 2030 emissions reduction targets.
“Canada’s market-based carbon price systems are much too uncertain to act as ‘incentive’ for industry to invest in major decarbonization projects,” the BMO report stated.
“Emitters need financial supports that are tangible and recognized by financial institutions to underwrite bank financing.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2023.
Most Canadians may be unaware that a Citizen-Led Inquiry into Canada’s COVID-19 Response is underway. The first hearing which took place in Truro, Nova Scotia has already provided the five Inquiry Commissioners with hours of evidence to consider.
Hearings are also scheduled for Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Red Deer, Vancouver, Quebec City, and finally Ottawa. The second round of hearings starts Thursday, March 30 in Toronto. On the eve of this, the National Citizens Inquiry has released a statement from renowned Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson. Below in his message to the commissioners, Dr. Peterson outlines all the reasons this inquiry is so important.
Canada’s federal and provincial governments’ COVID-19 policies were unprecedented. These interventions into Canadians’ lives, our families, businesses, and communities were, and to great extent remain, significant. In particular, these interventions impacted the physical and mental health, civil liberties and fundamental freedoms, jobs and livelihoods, and overall social and economic wellbeing of nearly all Canadians.
These circumstances demand a comprehensive, transparent, and objective national inquiry into the appropriateness and efficacy of these interventions, and to determine what lessons can be learned for the future. Such an inquiry cannot be commissioned or conducted impartially by our governments as it is their responses and actions to the COVID-19 which would be under investigation.
The National Citizen’s Inquiry (NCI) is a citizen-led and citizen-funded initiative that is completely independent from government. In early 2023, the NCI will hear from Canadians and experts and investigate governments’ COVID-19 policies in a fair and impartial manner.
The NCI’s purpose is to listen, to learn, and to recommend. What went right? What went wrong? How can Canadians and our governments better react to national crises in the future in a manner that balances the interests of all members of our society?
Canadian psychologist, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson who is also an author, online educator, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto spoke out about the Canadian response to COVID-19.
Dr. Peterson’s prerecorded testimony was directed to the five Commissioners at the National Citizens Inquiry in Truro, Nova Scotia.
The National Citizen’s Inquiry Hearings Event in the city of Toronto, Ontario Canada.
This event takes place starting March 30th to April 1st 2023.
Hearings go from 9:00am – 5:00pm Eastern Time.
You can register to attend the event here.
The hearing schedule is here.
Provincial police officer killed during attempted arrest northeast of Montreal
Unprecedented construction needed in B.C. to offset record immigration: Report
Disability Chat with Sean Burke: “Thank you, sir”
Oilers hold off Coyotes 5-4; McDavid reaches 140 points
NewsAlert: $491B budget invests in clean electricity, health care
Federal budget 2023 includes $59.5 billion in new spending, looks to increase revenue
Budget 2023: Liberals add foreign interference office, new money-laundering rules
What we know about the Covenant school shooting in Nashville
