The man who did not know Quebec Translation by Amie du Richelieu April 13, 2013 of Kim Cornelissen’s retort L’homme qui ne connaissait pas le Québec to Michael Binnion of Questerre Energy
Every time he opens his mouth, Mike insults us. Probably without even realizing it. This time, it’s claiming that us people all have a welfare dependence when it comes to equalization. He doesn’t care that we want to preserve our environment, that we don’t want to become a petro state. Mike, let me tell you a little secret: we absolutely don’t want to become like Alberta.
He doesn’t care that we would like to be a distinct society. He doesn’t care that we don’t want to drill up our countryside and lose the precious water that is getting rarer for the past few years. He doesn’t care that we would like to prioritize electric transportation and the production of energy thanks to renewables. He doesn’t care about the development of bio-methane, community heating by biomass, geothermal schools and the many other Quebec initiatives. He is not interested in healthy rural communities, resilient, where the air is first class and the people are full of good ideas and inspiring initiatives.
He really doesn’t care. Because it goes against his big plans. He wants to drill. So there.
It’s true that he could complain that he has been tricked. On map websites where he bought his claims, they forgot to tell him that people live there; there’s farms, businesses, homes. That’s not on the maps when you play “click and claim”. So, if Mike and his prospecting friends want to insult or despise people, they should blame the creators of that game for not integrating a plug-in Google Earth to be able to see what’s already there. They should complain for latent defect instead of insulting us. This omission is nevertheless understandable because it’s very obvious that there’s plenty of people living in the St. Lawrence Valley, in the Gaspésie Peninsula and on the Magdalen Islands. Everywhere!
And it’s irritating when you want to make believe there’s nobody there to go and get to the gas. Quebec is not a welfare state. Thanks to hydro-electricity, we are in an advantageous position in the renewable file when it comes to electricity (95%) – hey! just like in Norway, Mike! – , we’re on the right track, whether the APGQ (Association Pétrolière et Gazière du Québec – oil and gas association of Quebec) likes it or not. And the hydrocarbon peddlers are in a pretty uncomfortable position to complain about welfare when they benefit of generous subsidies and tax incentives without assuming the responsibilities of their actions. Could you choose your words more carefully, Mike? [Emphasis added]