Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said that Quebec was “fiercely opposed” to the notion of any energy pipelines running through the province in response to fending off the impact of U.S. tariffs.
“We are fiercely opposed to any type 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,” Blanchet told reporters during a press conference in Carleton-sur-Mer, Que. Thursday.
However, a recent poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute found that 79 per-cent of Canadians believe that Canada “needs to ensure it has oil and gas pipelines running from sea to sea across the country.”
A majority of respondents across all provinces agreed, however, Quebecers were the least likely to “strongly agree” at 27 per-cent.
Talks of re-opening the Energy East pipeline from Alberta to Atlantic Canada have re-emerged in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff threat on Canadian imports.
Federal Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson called for Ottawa and the provinces to discuss the possibility of an oil pipeline to Eastern Canada as a means to improve energy security and mitigate “vulnerabilities” in Canada’s economy.
“The world has changed quite a bit in the aftermath of what we have seen from what has been our friend, the United States,” Wilkinson told reporters in Montreal Thursday. “I think it does call for us to reflect on whether there are some conversations that we need to have in this country.”
Quebec Premier François Legault also acknowledged how Trump’s tariff threats may potentially soften Quebecers’ opposition to a pipeline running through the province.
“There’s no social acceptability for this kind of project right now in Quebec. But of course … what Mr. Trump is doing may change the situation in the future. So if there’s social acceptability, we will be open to these kinds of projects,” ” Legault told reporters Monday.
“If Danielle Smith or whoever table projects, we’ll look at them, but we need to have social acceptability.”
However, Blanchet remains unshook by the latest tariff developments, even aiming at Liberal leadership Mark Carney for his rapidly shifting stance on Canadian energy.
Carney recently said that the federal government should use its “exceptional powers” to “move forward with projects,” referring to pipelines, “including the Energy East.”
“But at the same time, the provinces, including Quebec, must agree with such projects,” Carney told reporters in Windsor, Ont. Thursday. “But we’ll see.”
However, Blanchet accused Carney of using the tariff threat as a way to “bypass” the province’s environmental concerns.
“The ‘pro-hydrocarbon speech’ that even Mr. Carney is starting to hold, as if there were a future in western Canadian hydrocarbons… the sacrifice of interests in green energies that make Quebec rich and that are a contribution to environmental issues, which are suddenly being pushed aside from the public debate to say, ‘we are in crisis,’” said Blanchet.
“What a great opportunity to bypass Quebec considerations and ecological considerations, to unroll a pipe to the Atlantic?”
