Quebec recently announced its intention to increase water charges. In an interview with the 98.5 FM radio media given in the wake of this announcement at COP15.2 in Montreal, Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment, the Fight Against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, reflects on the current state of affairs and what might change for companies that use water in their industrial processes.
"For 800 or so billion liters of water, [the State] only collects $3 million year after year, which is nonsense," the minister said at the outset to host Paul Arcand.
"The fees have not been increased for a good ten years. This is the situation that we are about to correct with the introduction of a new bill," he added. This piece of legislation should provide, probably by regulation, for an increase in royalties every three years at a minimum.
At the time of the interview [Dec. 16, 2022], civil servants still appeared to be comparing what other states charge in fees. "We are in the process of establishing these comparisons, so we will see where we stand in the North American market," said the elected representative of the Coalition avenir Québec. "We are lower than many of our neighboring states. At the very least, it's a catch-up [that's being considered] with these states and in some cases, it may even be higher."
Mr. Arcand reminds us that currently, royalties in Italy are 1,000 times higher than those in Quebec and those in Denmark are 4,000 times higher. The Minister did not deny these comparisons during the interview.
The fruits of these royalties, which obviously have not yet been publicly quantified, will not end up in the general coffers of the State. "The levy will be one of the elements that will participate in the financing of the [blue fund] to restore the quality of the water in our lakes, our rivers," said Charette. The blue fund was a promise made by the party in power during the last election campaign.
Another element of modernization brought by the new bill: transparency. "It's the companies that have to declare their water withdrawals, but we know that they don't use the most up-to-date technology," said the minister, not without scandalizing the host, for whom a 25% margin of error in the self-assessments of industrialists is almost like talking about a 25% fraud. "The bill will also mention this necessary transparency."
The interview can be listened to or re-listened to in its entirety on the 98.5 FM website » [in French]
