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There was some cynical spin buried deep inside the Quebec budget when it was delivered last week.

On Page 76, the document revealed that for 2022, Quebec’s climate-change-causing carbon emissions are expected to “decrease from pre-pandemic levels.”

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“According to the most recent information available, the level of greenhouse gas emissions in Québec is expected to be at approximately 79 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2022,” the budget plan states. “This would represent a reduction of 3 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent compared to the level preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (2019).”

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This sounds like good news — almost deserving of a pat on the back. But the budget failed to note that the levels for 2022 actually represent an increase over the previous year.  As an eagle-eyed Presse Canadienne reporter revealed a few days later, Quebec emitted 77.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2021 — which means the trend is heading in the wrong direction, after a temporary dip during the pandemic.

Yet this alarming information was seemingly used to justify the Quebec government’s decision to wind down its popular Roulez vert program, providing rebates on the purchase electric vehicles in a stay-the-course budget with an $11-billion deficit.

Quebec may be 60 per cent of the way towards its fast-approaching emissions reductions target of 37.5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030 and have the lowest carbon output in Canada. But this is no time to let up on a policy that promotes the electrification of Quebec’s ever-expanding fleet of solo vehicles. Quite the opposite.

It’s also a bad time to ignore the pleas of mayors and transit operators for stable and sustainable funding, which did not come in the budget.

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Structural deficits have been projected for the past few years and are forecast to grow moving forward. Without a reform of the funding model, cash-strapped municipalities and struggling transit operators will be forced to come begging to the Quebec government year after year, while facing the spectre of service cuts that will drive riders away.

After playing politics with how much it was willing to contribute for the coming year, the psychodrama looks likely to repeat itself as the Coalition Avenir Québec government “disengages” on funding existing public transit while spinning its wheels on plans to build more.

The largest share of Quebec’s greenhouse gases come from transportation. So if Quebec is at all serious about sticking to its targets for reducing emissions, then electrification of transportation, lowering the number of personal vehicles on the roads and expanding public transit must be the backbone of any strategy.

Getting the rest of the way to our emissions target by the end of the decade is likely to be a tough slog that will require bold action and strong measures. The budget set aside $9.3 billion over the next five years for the 2030 Plan for the Green Economy, but otherwise proposed nothing new to fight climate change.

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Perhaps that will be left to Environment Minister Benoît Charette, who is supposed to present an updated implementation strategy for the next five years in the coming weeks. Let’s cross our fingers that it offers more than wishful thinking. Charrette claims eliminating the subsidies will bring EV prices down — a prediction car dealers dispute.

Let’s hope this plan offers more of a roadmap to get Quebec to where it needs to go, because with this budget, we seem to have gotten lost.

Perhaps it’s not surprising. The CAQ’s green credibility was always iffy. Legault came to power without much of an environmental plan and was initially skeptical of the urgency. But massive demonstrations in March and September of 2019 helped the government realize climate change was one of Quebecers’ top priorities.

So Legault’s second budget was branded as the CAQ’s green shift. It contained $6.2 billion in measures to address climate change, including extending the Roulez vert program. Environmentalists and opposition parties dismissed it as mere greenwashing, but it was a start.

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Unfortunately that budget was delivered March 10, 2020 — during the tumultuous week when COVID-19 arrived in Quebec, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, the first lockdowns were triggered, and the government went into crisis mode. Everyone’s attention was diverted from the real and ongoing emergency: climate change.

Four years later, there are no excuses. The CAQ is focussed on leveraging Quebec’s relatively clean Hydro power to attract investment — even as reserves run out. But we’re avoiding the difficult social and behavioural changes that must be undertaken for a low-carbon future: electrifying transport, using public transit more than personal vehicles, curbing Quebecers’ insatiable appetite for cheap energy.

Quebec’s emissions are climbing again, yet being spun as an improvement. Meanwhile temperature records are being shattered the world over and Canada is bracing for another cataclysmic wildfire season.

Sadly, this budget exposes the shallowness of the Legault government’s environmental convictions at a critical crossroads. Quebec should be hitting the accelerator, not the brakes.

ahanes@postmedia.com

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