The abandonment of the automotive component of the third Quebec-Lévis link embarrasses elected CAQ members, who benefited from the project to be elected in 2018 and 2022. In particular, Éric Caire, who had promised to resign if the project was abandoned.
Ironically, the controversy surrounding the failure of the digital transformation of the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec has put Minister Cairo under pressure again, this time because of his earlier statements about the third link. “Eric Cairo… Please… The door is here!” we could read on the Facebook page of one of the Radio X programs in Quebec on Tuesday evening.
The day after the motorway portion of the project was abandoned, all eyes turned to the MP for La Peltrie.
A passionate advocate of a freeway tunnel between Lévis and Quebec, he promised in 2018 that he would resign if the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) backed down on the dossier. He gave it up in 2022, saying he would “fight to the death” to see the project through, regardless of studies and criticism.
Asked on Wednesday, the concerned director declined to comment, dodging journalists in the corridors of Parliament and referring the media to the presentation to be made on Thursday by his colleague at Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, on the update of the project . Lévis MP Bernard Drainville also fled journalists who wanted to question him about his past beliefs about the project.
Only Beauce-Nord member Luc Provençal kindly admitted that he was “disappointed” with how things were going.
Emerging from the Blue Room, Prime Minister François Legault acknowledged that the decision had been difficult, explaining that “when a situation changes, you have to have the humility to change”.
The example of Sheila Copps
The opposition did not call for Éric Caire’s resignation, but indicated that he himself had sealed his fate. “The ball is in his hands. It’s not me who is announcing Eric Caire’s resignation. It was Éric Caire who himself called for his resignation,” said interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay.
“I can’t wait to hear Eric Caire,” said Québec Solidaire co-spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. “This party, the CAQ, has been ideologically stubborn in defending a project based on nothing, neither common sense nor science. »
For their part, the Parti Québécois argued that Éric Caire should be held accountable. MP Pascal Bérubé pointed out that voters in office could “sanction” him during the last election campaign because work had not yet started. “I think he needs to address her, that’s the least we can do. »
Quebec Conservative Party leader Éric Duhaime called “treason” and urged Mr Caire and his colleagues to do it “like” former federal minister Sheila Copps. The Ontario MP resigned in 1996 after failing to deliver on the Liberal pledge to abolish the GST.
“Ms Copps said she was no longer able to look at herself in the mirror, to meet people’s eyes when she was shopping for groceries at her stables. I think that’s the feeling that a lot of members from the Quebec area will be feeling over the next few hours. However, Ms Copps had been re-elected at the time.
Election statements reappearing
Beyond the MPs’ political survival, some members of the opposition questioned the CAQ’s statements on the third tier in the last election campaign, particularly on the issue of studies. Marc Tanguay said he was convinced that the party in power already had them in their hands: “They knew it. […] The studies… Geneviève Guilbault… They had them. »
The ball is his. It’s not me calling for Eric Caire’s resignation. It was Éric Caire who himself called for his resignation.
“What are the odds that the CAQ was sincere and sincerely thinking about doing their third link in the Freeway version when they fought and said they had studies and then would eventually reveal them? asked Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said he “couldn’t know” what François Legault had “on his mind” but that the prime minister had “put his ideology ahead of common sense” and “held stubbornly on a project based on nothing.” , except election fantasies”.