Other nations besides Quebec have been blessed with abundant natural wealth.  Yet many of them found a way to squander it within a generation, others never to exploit its full value.  Quebec has managed to avoid such pitfalls. Thanks in good part to the leadership of the QLP, Quebec has made the right choices throughout its history.

As early as 1971, and despite the prejudice of René Lévesque's Parti Québécois in favour of nuclear power, the Robert Bourassa government commits to generating the electricity the province needs by developing a clean, safe and renewable source of energy : hydro power. In the 1980's, Robert Bourassa launches a vast operation to upgrade waste water management and protect our rivers.  The Liberal government would later set up the Recyc-Quebec agency, a first step in the long road towards extracting wealth from waste, instead of merely burying it.

The government of Jean Charest walks in those footsteps.  Since 2003, it has enacted an ambitious and comprehensive law on sustainable development and has kept adding new wind farms, protected areas and wildlife preserves.  It has launched a demanding action plan on the treatment of waste products, with the aim of recycling and extracting value from every ounce of refuse, and burying none of it by decade's end.

Just prior to the Copenhagen Summit, the Liberal government unveiled a 20% reduction target for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the most ambitious target in North America.  Quebec is also the first Canadian province to implement the strictest North American standards for GHG emissions by motor vehicles.

Since 2003, a number of initiatives have been taken to protect the environment and public health and avoid depleting our stock of natural wealth, including:

New standards and monitoring mechanisms to curtail logging volumes and give our vast forests a chance to recuperate.

A mandatory inspection regime for older vehicles, so that polluting clunkers can be taken off the road.

The introduction of policies extending manufacturers’ responsibility for the whole lifecycle of their products, which will compel those who sell hazardous products, such as paints, tires, electronic material and motor oils, to take direct responsibility for their safe recuperation and disposal at the end of their useful life.

A new law on water, confirming its status as a public good and strengthening the means to protect our sources of supply.