Photo: Droit-Inc Back in 2002, this Pierre Renaud, lawyer by profession, was President of the Quebec chapter of Nature Conservancy Canada. He came in Richelieu's city hall to do a press conference to announce that there would be a provincial natural reserve in front of my home to help protect endangered species, the Copper Redhorse among others.
I was so happy! I thought this would turn things around and the river would at last get cleaned up! After the press conference, I went up to him to thank him and I had tears running down my cheeks.
I explained to him how I had been trying to stop the clear-cutting along the riverbanks in my town and that I was relieved to see that somebody would help me at last! He asked me where I lived and if there were trees in front of my home. I told him not only there was a forest growing on the riverbank in front of my home, but that I myself had planted hundreds of trees there for many years, even though the property wasn't mine.
How naive I was!
Since last year, Nature Conservancy is talking about handing over the shore properties Nature Conservancy bought in Richelieu to the municipality, the very people who either cut the trees or let homeowners do it!
Later on, Pierre Renaud was named president of the BAPE (provincial environmental public hearings body). This body has no legislative power, only recommendations come out of it. But still, some questionable recommendations and opinions came out from this group during his watch. I was disappointed.
When Daniel Breton was named Environment Minister, one of the first things he did was to throw him out of the BAPE. Daniel had often told me that the man was not to be trusted, nor could Nature Conservancy.
And today, this comes out in the newspaper. Link: http://affaires.lapresse.ca/economie/energie-et-ressources/201303/13/01-4630799-douze-personnes-menent-le-jeu-selon-lancien-president-du-bape.php
Here's my translation:
Twelve people run the place says previous president of the BAPE
Pierre Renaud, the previous president of the provincial environmental public hearings body, claims that the mining industry "lost the media battle" against "twelve people that run the environment game in Quebec".
Mr Renaud, president of the BAPE from 2007 to the end of 2012, took the stage Wednesday (March 13) during the meeting of the mining industry leaders in Quebec held in Montreal. Now freed from his duty of neutrality, he says that twelve people hold the cards in the environmental game in Quebec, and some of those are now Ministers and that these people make statements on things they know nothing about. He did not name those 12 persons, but some of them will be at the Forum on royalties Friday (March 15).
"Some people take the floor and some journalists with little scruples will mention things without considering the truth," he added. "And that's a problem in Quebec right now."
He called upon the mining industry to storm the media.
"Today, either you let the media and twelve people manage Quebec, or you grab the bull by the horns and tell yourself that it's your turn to be in the media and make sure the good news comes out."
But the "good news" is not only financial, says Mr Renaud. He claims that the industry should insist even more on the sustainable aspects of it's projects. Mr Renaud gave for example the open-pit project of Osisko in Malartic, as an example of sustainable development. He had presided at the public hearings for that project in 2008.
The previous president of the BAPE, now counsel at McCarthy Tétrault, maintains also that the industry should find itself an artist that would accept being their spokesperson.
During the meetings of leaders of the mining industry, held by the federation of chambers of commerce of Quebec, among others, the 200 participants did recognize failures in the public communication and media plan.
Marcel Côté, co-founder and associate of Secor-KPMG, deplored that the present government did not know the industry.
Communications director of ArcelorMittal Mines Canada, Eric Tetrault, said that the mining lobby would make itself heard quite more often from now on.
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"La proximité de l'ex-patron du BAPE avec les minières est indécente, dit Khadir
PC | Par Alexandre Robillard, La Presse Canadienne
QUÉBEC - Le député de Québec solidaire Amir Khadir juge que l'ex-président du BAPE Pierre Renaud fait preuve d'indécence en conseillant les minières si peu de temps après son congédiement de l'organisme gouvernemental.
M. Khadir a fait ce commentaire jeudi au lendemain d'un discours de M. Renaud à la Tribune des leaders de l'industrie minière, à Montréal, au cours duquel l'avocat a invité les entreprises du secteur à investir la sphère médiatique.
M. Renaud a déploré que «12 personnes mènent le jeu environnemental au Québec, dont certaines sont devenues ministres».
L'ex-patron du Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement, congédié l'automne dernier par l'ex-ministre de l'Environnement Daniel Breton, a ajouté que ces personnes se prononcent sur des sujets qu'elles ne connaissent pas.
Le cabinet d'avocats McCarthy Tétrault a annoncé en janvier la nomination de M. Renaud, en précisant que son expertise environnementale servirait à ses clients du secteur des ressources naturelles.
Pour M. Khadir, la sortie de M. Renaud illustre la situation de «conflit d'intérêts patent» dans laquelle il se retrouve en raison de ses fonctions au BAPE, qu'il a présidé de 2007 à 2012, après avoir été commissaire de l'organisme de 1993 à 1996.
Sans s'avancer sur la possibilité d'une contravention à des règles d'après-mandat, M. Khadir croit que cela soulève à tout le moins des questions.
«C'est indécent qu'un ancien président du BAPE prenne la défense de l'industrie minière, fasse la promotion des intérêts de l'industrie minière et leur demande d'être plus agressifs et de se chercher des artistes pour nous faire avaler la légitimité de la complainte des riches et des multinationales», a-t-il dit en entrevue.
Selon le député, la situation de M. Renaud soulève aussi des doutes sur la façon dont il a supervisé l'étude d'impacts environnementaux de divers projets.
«Ça expliquerait pourquoi tous ces processus ont forcé les citoyens à avaler tant de couleuvres, a-t-il dit. Je pense au mégadépotoir à côté de mon hôpital à Le Gardeur, je pense à la mine à ciel ouvert en plein milieu d'une ville à Malartic, des projets qui ont tous été avalisés par le BAPE.»
Un porte-parole du cabinet McCarthy Tétrault a fait savoir que M. Renaud n'était pas disponible pour réagir aux propos de M. Khadir.
Le code d'éthique du BAPE stipule que les anciens membres ne doivent pas tirer d'avantages indus de leurs fonctions antérieures.
Il leur est aussi interdit de divulguer les informations confidentielles obtenues dans leurs fonctions ou de les utiliser à leur profit ou pour celui d'un tiers."
Lien: http://quebec.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/14/ex-patron-bape-khadir_n_2878933.html?utm_hp_ref=politique
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