Brett Thoms
Fort-Coulonge July 14, 2022
The Green Party of Quebec (GPQ) announced their candidate for the Pontiac, Pierre Cyr, in early June. Cyr, 58, has two sons and has lived in Fort-Coulonge for about three years.
Before moving to Fort-Coulonge, Cyr had a 27-year-long career with NAV CANADA, where he worked as an airport manager and national aviation safety specialist.
As an airport manager, Cyr said he ran 14 different airports across the country. As safety manager Cyr would evaluate the safety processes of air transportation across Canada.
“I was really privileged to have all these opportunities,” said Cyr. “It gives me a lot of . . .
experience dealing with people and tough situations. I evaluated risk, made plans, did audit work and evaluated the efficiency of things.”
Prior to his work at NAV CANADA Cyr also spent three years in the navy.
“I learned to be squarer in life in the military which I needed when I was young, so that was a good experience,” said Cyr, who ultimately concluded that military life wasn’t for him.
As to why he’s running, Cyr said he’s always wanted to get involved in politics and believes that he’s always been good at finding solutions to problems.
“I want to change the mindset of people and get rid of this rigid thinking that we cannot change anything. That’s not true. If we need to change something, we need to act right now,” he said.
If elected Cyr would make facilitating cooperation within the riding a priority.
“Cooperation is not just for you; it is to help each other create a better community and try to grow but grow while respecting the capacity of the people and ecology and just to try to be healthy financially or economically. Just have a balance, and then try to maintain that balance instead of looking for them to expand all the time.”
Cyr’s vision for the Pontiac revolved around these concepts of cooperation and balance. For example, Cyr said that the farming industry could be managed in a way where local producers directly go to feed locals, instead of shipping food in and out of the area.
“We have to try to reduce the dependency on international trade and to be as local as possible for everything we consume,” said Cyr.
On forestry industry Cyr stated that the GPQ is not against the forestry industry, but instead is for managing the industry in a different and more sustainable way. He stated that the Pontiac’s forestry resources should be utilized in a way that is managed by locals for the long term, instead of relying on corporations that exploit the resources and then move one without leaving anything behind.
“If we can find a way of doing this, maybe at a smaller level and in a cooperative way, then that will show everyone that it is possible to do this forest industry activity without ruining everything or without having a big corporation coming in,’’ said Cyr.
Cyr also outlined various policies that he believed would be both beneficial to the environment and local consumers.
For example, Cyr explained that GPQ is against deceptive marketing that uses oversized packaging to make it look like you’ll get more of something that you actually get due to large packaging. “I bought some vitamins and less than half the bottle was full. I mean, make the bottle smaller.”
Cyr explained this would both reduce waste and give the consumer an idea about what they are actually buying.
Cyr also said the GPQ is also in favour of passing legislation that would make it so that products are higher quality through regulations ensuring that everything sold in Quebec is built to last. He believes regulations like these could effectively address planned obsolescence, where companies essentially design products to fail after a certain period of time so the consumer is obliged to buy a new one.
“For example, the GPQ is for a warranty of up to four years on cell phones, so if your phone doesn’t work within four years, the manufacturer of this phone will have to replace it,” said Cyr. “Or 10 years for an appliance like a fridge. If you cannot prove that your product is good, you’re not selling it in Quebec.”
He also talked about requiring manufacturers to plan how their products will be recycled at the end of their life cycle, to reduce the environmental impact of waste.
Other economic priorities listed include the introduction of free public transportation to the Pontiac, reducing the work week to 36 hours a week, helping people who are out of work go back to school to find long term careers and increasing the minimum wage to $20 an hour.
Cyr said that often businesses who struggle with finding labour often are just not paying enough. “I think if you cannot run a business with an employee that’s there with you for a long time for 20 bucks an hour, well, I’m not sure your business is going to last anyway,” said Cyr.
In terms and government services Cyr discussed making them more efficient by modernizing the way they deliver services and localising administration. “Sometimes we tend to blame the people working in the government, but it’s not the people. It’s a system that needs to be fixed,” said Cyr.
Cyr said he would push ahead with getting a waste disposal facility for the MRC Pontiac and stated he was opposed to exporting waste internationally to places with laxer waste management laws.
Another major priority listed by Cyr was reforming the way elections are done in the province.
“At the federal level for example, the Liberal Party, they really have about between 25 and 30 per cent of people that are voting for them,” explained Cyr. “They then make laws claim they were elected democratically, but when you look really, it’s not 50 per cent of the people that agree with the changes they’re making.”
Instead Cyr believes Quebec and Canada as whole should adopt a proportional representation for its elections.
“If a party gets 35 per cent of the vote then they should have 35 per cent of the seats of the parliament, if some party has 10 per cent of the vote, they should have 10 per cent of the seats,” said Cyr.
Cyr stated that under a proportional system parties would be more cooperative and there would be less of a chance for snap elections because parties would be forced to compromise over the course of their term.
“I know Mr. Legault talked about changing this ballot structure, but not in his first mandate. And he doesn’t talk about it anymore,” said Cyr.
Cyr described the GPQ as a federalist party, which he contrasted with another party on the left, Québec solidaire, which is separatist.
“The GPQ is not saying the federal government is perfect,” said Cyr. “If you think about the last 30 years, what are some great things we did in Canada? I asked myself this question the other day and I couldn’t even think of anything. We need to transfer some responsibility to the provinces and give the power to local people with the money that goes with it. But going for separation is kind of useless.”
Cyr also said the GPQ opposed both Bill 21 and Bill 96 and described the party as being for the rights of all minorities, whether they be racial, LGBTQ or Indigenous.
“Anglophones are just like the francophones. I mean it’s their land, they were raised here, so they should be allowed to speak their language,” said Cyr, though did say that the French language needed to be protected.
Cyr also said that GPQ wants to reduce police budgets and reinvest those funds in resolving the root causes of crime and treating addiction. He also said the justice system should focus more on rehabilitation and less on incarceration. He added that the provincial police need to be better governed and held to account by people outside of the police force.
In conclusion Cyr said that he at the very least hoped that by talking about these issues it will start to shake up political discourse.
“I know the GPQ is not going to win the election. But that shouldn’t be a showstopper for people in the Pontiac to vote green. You have to look at all the advantages because the plan of the GPQ is really one of the best plans that’s available,” concluded Cyr.
