Environmentalists rejoice after minister says number of cars on Quebec roads should be cut in half

Quebec Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon speaks during the inauguration of the first battery manufacturing plant for medium and heavy vehicles in Quebec at Lion Electric in Mirabel, Que., Monday, April 17, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Environmentalists are delighted by the fact that Quebec's economy minister said the province's automobile fleet should be cut in half.

Car dealers, on the other hand, are worried.

The director of Vivre en ville said he was pleasantly surprised by Pierre Fitzgibbon's statement on Monday that the number of cars on the road should be halved.

According to Christian Savard, this proposal has long been circulating among environmentalists.

"We need to go electric, but we also need to go down the road of demotorization, and the figure he put forward is fairly well known if you look at the simulation models that will enable the energy transition," said Savard.

Savard added that it's "particularly interesting that a minister like him dares to say these things, because unfortunately, reducing the number of vehicles has long been a taboo."

Has Fitzgibbon become the unexpected ally of environmentalists like Savard in the fight against climate change?

To this question, the director of Vivre en ville replied that "reality is catching up with everyone at the moment" and that "when the government realizes what needs to be done and delivers this message with such transparency, it means that taboos are falling."

At a press briefing on Monday, the Fitzgibbon, the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, mentioned that three elements were necessary for the success of the energy transition.

He cited increasing the supply of renewable energy, carbon capture and the need for Quebecers to rethink "the way they consume" energy, particularly when on the move.

The minister added that we should "have half as many cars" and that these should be electric.

ADVISER ADDS NUANCE

On Tuesday, a political adviser to Fitzgibbon added a few nuances to the minister's remarks in an e-mail exchange with The Canadian Press.

"The transportation sector is one of the biggest emitters of GHGs [greenhouse gases], and we've always said that vehicle electrification is essential to achieving our targets" and "we also want to offer Quebecers other transportation options that are just as efficient, if not more so, than the automobile," wrote Rosalie Tremblay-Cloutier.

She also mentioned that "the government has no direction on reducing the number of vehicles on our roads."

Nonetheless, on Monday, the minister declared twice that Quebec should 'have half as many cars." The first time at the microphone of radio host Paul Arcand, and the second time at a press scrum.

'WAR ON THE CAR'

According to the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, the minister's remarks mean that "the CAQ is officially declaring war on the car."

In a lengthy review on social media, Éric Duhaime pointed out that "public transit is not present everywhere, in our regions, and never will be" and that for many families, abandoning the car is unrealistic.

"Will the CAQ eliminate half the limousines provided to its ministers? Of course not. Which ministry will eliminate its fleet? None. Instead, it's the guy who works at the shop, at $20 an hour, paying $300 a month for his Sentra, who the CAQ is going after," Duhaime wrote.

He explained that low-income motorists will find it hard to buy an electric vehicle, and "that the three other even more left-wing parties in the National Assembly will applaud wildly and no doubt find that we're not taking the poorest people's cars off the road fast enough."

But the CEO of Vélo-Québec points out that Minister Fitzgibbon has "never talked about taking cars away from people," and that reducing car use, in his view, requires the development of alternatives to car-dedicated infrastructures.

"People use their cars because there is no other option", said Jean-François Rheault, adding that "36 per cent of Quebecers live less than five kilometers from their work, so walking, cycling and efficient public transit are options that can be developed."

For Équiterre, however, improving the supply of alternatives to the car won't be enough to change Quebecers' travel habits.

"We need to discourage the use and ownership of vehicles' and introduce eco-tax measures where more polluting vehicles cost more to register than less fuel-efficient ones," says Anne-Catherine Pilon, a sustainable mobility analyst for Équiterre.

DEALERS VOICE THEIR CONCERNS

The Corporation des concessionnaires automobiles du Québec (CCAQ) expressed concern with Fitzgibbon's comments.

"Such remarks require clarification from the minister, given that Quebec's territorial reality and public transit supply necessarily require access to an individual vehicle for a majority of Quebecers", said the CCAQ in a press release.

"The fact that these concerns are being expressed publicly can only be a source of unrest and apprehension for the future of our community, at a time when we are fully involved in the energy and ecological transition strategy launched by the government," the automobile dealers' association also stated.

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

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

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 11, 2023.