Legault not in agreement with Fitzgibbon’s car-reduction target

Premier François Legault hinted on Wednesday that he wants to reduce the number of cars in Quebec, but not necessarily by half as his energy minister, Pierre Fitzgibbon, suggested.

Fitzgibbon has sparked controversy in recent days by suggesting that Quebec’s fleet of nearly seven million vehicles should be cut in half.

Talking to media just before the cabinet meeting in Quebec City, Legault suggested his minister was speaking his mind and was influenced by his summer reading of environmental reports.

The premier explained his government was investing in public transit to reduce the number of cars on the road.

“It’s clear that, in big cities, we’d like to see fewer cars,” he said. “In big cities, one of the reasons for putting in public transit is to reduce the number of cars, so ultimately to reduce GHG (emissions).”

However, he refused to set a precise fleet reduction target or timetable. Nor does his government intend to set any coercive means.

“We really want to go about it in an incentive way, so, not coercively,” said Legault. “We don’t have a 50 per cent target and then a date.”

And in the same breath, he was keen to point out that he was aware of the reality outside Quebec’s big cities, where distances are great and public transit is difficult and costly to set up.

“We have to be realistic,” said the Premier.

It is “not at all” a government target to halve the number of vehicles on the road in Quebec, said Fitzgibbon.

“It’s not up to the government to say who will drive what. People will do what they want. Those who want three will get three.”

However, he called on citizens who have a social discourse and want to save the planet to be consistent and understand that “there are going to be changes,” in his words.

“What I don’t accept intellectually is that we say we want to be carbon neutral, but we have three, four gasoline-powered Ford Explorers.”

Before even thinking about reducing the car fleet with targets, the government prefers instead to increase the proportion of electric cars, this time with targets, the premier said.

“We want to move to electric vehicles as quickly as possible,” he continued, pointing out that his government is encouraging and financing the construction of battery plants in Quebec.

The Automobile Dealers Corporation deplored Fitzgibbon’s statement, while environmentalists applauded it.

In 2021, there were 6,995,085 vehicles on the road in Quebec, out of an estimated population of 8,602,335, which corresponds to 2,616,872 more vehicles than 10 years earlier.

In Quebec, road transport is the largest source of GHG emissions, accounting for 34 per cent of total emissions.

-This article has been translated from French by CityNews