Quebec energy minister calls for drastic decrease in number of cars, Premier hesitates – Montreal | 24CA News
Quebec Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon says the variety of automobiles on Quebec roads might want to lower drastically if the province hopes to achieve its carbon-neutral goal by 2050.
The minister was questioned by reporters exterior the National Assembly Wednesday after he instructed earlier this week that the variety of automobiles would have to be decreased by half — no matter gas sort.
On Wednesday, the minister clarified he wouldn’t be setting particular targets for the variety of automobiles within the province, however as a substitute is asking on people to make use of their “common sense.”
“It’s going to come naturally. Quebecers are intelligent people,” Fitzgibbon stated. “Who am I to say you shouldn’t drive a Ford Explorer with a lot of fuel? That’s your decision. Maybe it’s going to cost more money to do it, but it’s not the government’s job to tell you what to drive. ”
The minister additionally invited the inhabitants to alter their total vitality consumption habits.
“If you want to be carbon-neutral in 2050, you’re going to eat differently, probably travel differently. You’re not going to go to Florida every month using kerosene across the ocean if you want to be carbon-neutral.”
But Premier François Legault didn’t go fairly as far along with his feedback Wednesday morning.
“We want to work with incentives, not obligations. … I think that the priority right now is to move from gas cars to electric cars.”
Legault stated he additionally feels Quebecers will naturally depart their automobiles behind, particularly as public transit continues to increase with initiatives just like the REM mild rail community in Montreal. He stated it’s additionally necessary to be “realistic,” relating to travelling in additional distant areas.
“Pierre read a lot about environmentalist reports this summer and I think he offered an image, an example,” Legault stated. “And we agree. If we want to offer more collective transportation in large cities, it will reduce the number of cars, that is what we wish.”
Meanwhile, opposition events argue the CAQ authorities shouldn’t be asking Quebecers to alter their habits, when it hasn’t achieved sufficient to enhance public transit .
Liberal Transport Critic André Albert Morin says many proceed to depend on their automobiles as a result of the CAQ authorities hasn’t put almost sufficient deal with creating public transit methods.
“You have to give the means to the population in order to achieve that goal, and as I said previously, right now we have no plans, no ideas,” Liberal Transport Critic André Albert Morin stated in an interview. “We have a statement from a minister one morning and that’s it.”
The sale of recent gas-powered autos is ready to be banned in 2035.
