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Quebec election: Gatineau disaster highlights need for climate plan, Couillard says

Liberal leader calls the province's climate strategy the most ambitious in the country.

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After suspending his election campaign for most of the day, Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard said the situation in storm-ravaged Gatineau highlights the importance of a comprehensive plan to fight climate change.

Couillard left his campaign bus and its accompanying reporters in Montreal and travelled to Gatineau on Saturday morning to survey the damage from a tornado that touched down in the region on Friday night. He was joined by Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée. Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault also visited the region Saturday.

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Returning to Montreal to meet reporters, Couillard defended his party’s plan, saying it is the right approach, despite the fact the PQ and Québec solidaire are proposing more ambitious plans to fight climate change that each include a plan to fully electrify the transportation sector.

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“We have certainly the most ambitious plan in Canada, especially now that Ontario has left us (with Premier Doug Ford pulling that province out of the carbon exchange market),” Couillard said. He said his government enacted policies to encourage more electric vehicles and to electrify public transportation, and he touted the $6.3-billion REM — an electric light-rail project being built in the Montreal region as a concrete example.

“If we want to go forward in the environmental file, it must be together with the public, so to tell Quebecers at that date you won’t be allowed to own gasoline-powered vehicles is not the right way to do it, according to me. Ramming this through the public is not going to do anything for the environment. There has to be a public buy in.”

Couillard’s campaign made no new announcements on Saturday, but the Liberal leader was forced to defend the integrity of one of his caucus members after a Journal de Montréal report revealed the province’s anti-corruption squad is investigating former Liberal cabinet minister Pierre Paradis.

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Paradis was accused by the province’s ethics commissioner of using a $25,000 housing allowance to pay for an apartment in Quebec City for his daughter, her spouse and their child.

Paradis has responded saying he did nothing wrong and vowed to fight the accusations.

Couillard welcomed Paradis back into the Liberal caucus over the summer after he was suspended while the ethics commissioner investigated the matter. Couillard defended Paradis again on Saturday.

“As far as I know, Mr. Paradis has not been charged with anything,” he said, adding his party sought a legal opinion that said Paradis did not violate any rules.

Paradis is not running for re-election in his Brome-Missisquoi riding in the Oct. 1 vote, so Couillard said there is no need for him to kick him out of the caucus.

Couillard had one campaign event he didn’t cancel Saturday. He had a discussion with students and youth representatives at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

He spoke about his party’s plans to make daycare free for 4-year olds, his climate-change ambitions, and his plan to build a more inclusive Quebec by welcoming new arrivals and ensuring they are well integrated into the job market

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During the event, Daye Diallo, the president of Force Jeunesse — which advocates to improve conditions for young people in the workforce — asked Couillard how a re-elected Liberal government would enact policies to ensure future generations are not adversely affected.

Couillard said his party would continue to make contributions to the Generations Fund to help reduce the province’s debt so future generations are not penalized by crippling debt-servicing payments.

Afterward, Diallo said he was impressed with Couillard’s answers about youth issues, saying he believed he has a clear vision. As a native of Guinea, he said the issue of integrating immigrants is also one of importance for him.

“I was born in Guinea, and I can tell you I am not a failed story of immigration,” he said.

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