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Dear Steven Guilbeault,

For the sake of the climate transition, the economic recovery and the public good, we insist that you reverse your previous support for privatization and commit to a publicly financed and publicly administered green recovery, creating good, unionized jobs. Privatization is expensive, inefficient, unpopular and unnecessary.

Background

Steven Guilbeault is known as an advocate for the environment, and is one of three MPs who have reportedly been tapped to lead the “Post-COVID green recovery.” However, he also has deep ties – reaching back more than a decade – to private interests that could sabotage the success of a climate transition at this crucial moment. 

That’s why we – his constituents and people affected by his policies – need Guilbeault to publicly disclaim his previous support for privatization (see “support for the REM” below) immediately. Guilbeault must commit to a climate transition centred on expanding the public sector, creating unionized jobs.

Privatization consistently wastes public money and consumer dollars by guaranteeing profit margins to investors, lowering the quality of jobs, delivering shabby results and creating shady schemes to extract additional revenue. 

If privatization plays a key role in a “green recovery,” it could undermine public trust in climate transition at the very moment when that trust is essential. 

“Public Private Partnerships” would also hand billions of dollars to private investors, who will likely store it in untaxed offshore accounts. That money is better spent on creating good jobs and delivering quality, zero-carbon services.

Ties to privatizers and tax dodgers

In 2007, Guilbeault joined the corporate consulting firm Deloitte. Not much is known about what he did there, but Deloitte is well known for public private partnerships (a form of privatization and corporate profiteering), boasting a “Public Private Partnership team” that is “at the forefront of the sector around the world”. The “Big Four” firm has been at the centre of a variety of political scandals in Canada, and is well known internationally for being one of the “masterminds of tax avoidance,” and the financial times reported that the firm had helped its multinational corporations and the super-rich undertake “industrial-scale” tax avoidance.

Guilbeault’s corporate connections likely helped out Equiterre, which forged deals with corporate actors and raised big money. In 2019, it received over $3 million in donations and $2 million from the Quebec government (more on that in a moment).

Guilbeault left Équiterre in 2018, but he had already begun styling himself as a Venture capitalist, working as a strategic consultant to Cycle Capital Management, and to Copticom, a private sector public relations firm.

Support for the REM

The Réseau Électrique Métropolitain is a disaster in terms of planning, cost, public benefit and even ecological impact. A multi-billion-dollar privatization boondoggle, the automated electric train serving several Montreal suburbs is designed to make profits for private investors, which will come from the public purse, likely at the expense of other transit services. In an unprecedented move, the routes for the elevated tracks were not chosen by planners working in the public interest, but to maximize profits from the real estate holdings of the project’s private investors.

But the project is electric rail, so at least it’s good for greenhouse gas emissions, right? Perhaps not. The massive amount of concrete required to build the raised rails will generate an estimated one million tonnes of CO2 emissions, meaning it will be many years before even narrowly-defined climate benefits are seen.

After the Province’s own environmental assessment found that the project probably wouldn’t fulfill its promises to the public or the environment, the REM was suffering from a credibility gap. Into that gap stepped Steven Guilbeault, who went to bat for the project, making the case for it in the press and with politicians.

His advocacy earned him praise from Michael Sabia, the privatization guru who has been tapped by the Liberals to lead their privatization-driving infrastructure bank. In advocating for the REM, Sabia explained, Guilbeault displayed a “pragmatic” approach “to bring other people onside, to build bridges.”

After Guilbeault’s performance, Quebec’s Liberal government announced it would give Equiterre $4 million to promote electric vehicles.

Liberal Infrastructure Bank Aims to Attract Private Capital… to Extract Profit from the Public

The Canada Infrastructure Bank, which has so far been allocated $35 billion to invest, is built around the idea that it can attract private investors to build or manage key infrastructure. However, interest rates are low and the government can borrow what it needs, so there is no real reason to attract private capital… except to generate profits for private investors at public expense!

Already, the CIB has looked at municipal water systems, airports, highways, rail lines, ports, energy, and of course the REM, discussed above.

How will these projects generate profits for private investors? The usual plan is to charge user fees for projects that are currently financed through tax revenue. User fees are effectively a regressive tax: the poorest members of society pay a bigger proportion while the rich pay less. 

The result: accelerating inequality and resentment among the working class, which will undermine support for essential green infrastructure. 

Guilbeault’s silence on this shockingly misguided agenda must end.

Public alternatives exist, corporate Canada is holding them back

With interest rates low, it’s a great time to build publicly financed and democratically administered green infrastructure. Building or upgrading rail lines, social housing, food distribution hubs, creating new bus lines, establishing a green power grid, or cleaning up the environmental mess left by the fossil fuel economy: all this can be done now, and it can create good, unionized jobs.

Many proposals already exist. Postal workers have a plan to transform Canada Post into an engine for the green economy while financially empowering low-income and remote communities. Public sector workers have launched a campaign to bring all long-term care into the public sector after disastrous and unnecessary mass death during the COVID crisis. Courage has put forward a roadmap for publicly-owned telecommunications, which has become more pressing than ever as unprecedented levels of connectivity are required for work and civic life.

Governments around the world are turning to innovative “Public-Public Partnerships” – collaborations between different government bodies and agencies to create public interest solutions for climate, food, housing and more.

So what’s holding us back? The Liberals’ close ties to corporate interests mean that common sense policies like taxing the wealthy and corporations to fund public services remain out of reach. That’s why Steven Guilbeault must renounce these connections immediately and commit to acting in the public interest.

The Courage Coalition believes that to win a new kind of socialist politics, we need a new kind of candidate.

That’s why we’re launching a candidate search. Courage is looking for candidates who, with our support, will run in ridings across Canada in the next federal election under the NDP banner. We have a national membership that could potentially offer support through volunteer recruitment, campaign management and fundraising.

Courage is looking for someone who is willing to challenge the party establishment. We believe that an effective movement candidate will have some of these characteristics:

• Is willing to stand up for core values of solidarity, justice and equality against pressure from the party establishment;
• Understands that the way politics is currently done is what created the current mess;
• Is committed to remaining accountable to social movements once in office;
• Believes in using their platform to educate the public and introduce bold ideas;
• Understands that working from within the parliamentary system is one tool social movements are using. There are many other tools that involve working outside the system.

There is no one personality type that makes a good candidate. Some movement candidates are soft-spoken and build relationships one on one. Some are blunt, and speak the truth no matter the cost. Some are deep listeners, who build the confidence of those around them. Some have an eye for policy details. Some have big-picture ideas about a better future, and delegate the details to others.

We are aware that many of these skills are perceived and valued differently because of gender, race, class background and disability. The challenges can’t be underestimated, but we encourage everyone who is interested in applying to understand their own position and background as a potential asset to movements. We commit to creating support systems for candidates, and listening to what they need. Candidates won’t be alone in this.

Do you know someone who would be a good candidate? If so, get in touch through our form. There is no need to have political experience. We don’t want perfection, we want people who are ready for a challenge and want to learn and build together.

Nominate a candidate here!

Courage stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the people who are victims of ongoing state sponsored violence. The deaths of George Floyd, Regis Korchinski-Paquet and millions of other Black and racialized people occurs in the context of structural, institutionalised and deep rooted racism that blinds our society. There is severe and persistent dehumanization and devaluation of Black lives by the hands of the life threatening police. We join the movement and its demand to defund the police forces, and to invest in the lives of people and communities it has oppressed. We join them in their disobedience, and in the rage that is calling out for accountability and structural justice.

In our support for the resistance, we also acknowledge Canada’s role as an active perpetrator and participant in the state sponsored violence in the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples, and racialized communities within Canada. The Canadian State has a long history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and has used its police to violently subjugate protestors struggling for their right to live safely on the land stolen by the colonial state. 

We must begin our resistance in acknowledging our own role in being complicit in the racist acts by the Canadian state and benefiting from the oppressive regime.  

In solidarity,

Courage

Capital fuels COVID; solidarity will flatten the curve

Thursdays, beginning June 4th
Casserole (make noise with your pots & pans!)
6pm, your balcony 
#protégeonsMontréal

While business owners, investors and powerful corporations pressure all levels of government to “re-open” the economy, the crisis will continue to disproportionately threaten the well being of frontline workers, elders, migrant workers, and already marginalized communities.

Lives are at stake.

Physical distancing has protected many of us and our loved ones from the pandemic. As the “new normal” is negotiated, solidarity will protect us from the injustices of an economic system that sees the loss of human life as a cost of doing business.

Reports from essential workers tell us with alarming frequency: whatever their assurances, it’s not safe out there. Precautions are frequently flouted, equipment is often not available, and economic pressures lead to impossible choices.

We demand that all levels of government resist the dangerous pressure to reopen for the sake of corporate profits. Instead, we must build an economy that provides necessities like food and housing, protects everyone’s health, and increases dignity and equality.

We demand:

• The right of any person to stay home and refuse unsafe work without penalty
• Access to the CERB and other COVID-19 relief for all, regardless of status
• Cancellation of rent payments for people, not just businesses and landlords
• Protective equipment, enforced safety protocols and meaningful support for all essential workers  

Add your voice! Join the casserole on Thurday at 6pm! (And add your name at the bottom.)

The rapidly changing positions of the Legault government

Since mid-March in Quebec, solidarity has been critical to saving the lives of the most vulnerable. The decline of Covid-19 transmission is only possible through social distancing, and a collective will to remain at home to protect our friends and family members.

Quebec was the first province to limit the activities of schools, businesses and daycares in order to safeguard its population. François Legault’s government promised all non-essential businesses, schools, and daycares that reopening was not in the cards unless there had been a consistent two-week decline of transmission, indicating the potential for a safe return to “normal.”

In early April, under mounting pressure from the commanding heights of the economy, Legault wavered on these promises, saying that schools and daycares would likely open on May 4 – pending a “peak” of infection rates. On April 10, with a peak nowhere in sight, Legault began floating the idea of opening even before May 4. On April 28, Legault officially reversed his promises, announcing  concrete reopening dates for Quebec schools, daycares, and businesses: May 11th for Quebecers outside Montreal, May 18th for Montreal, due to a significantly higher case load in the city. 

Then, Montreal’s reopening was pushed back another week, to May 25, due to the worsening situation in the city. He has since backed down, thanks to a major outcry from Montrealers.

Montreal construction sites and factories, however, remain “essential,” and many workers were forced to return to work as of May 11.  To date, the government has failed to present a plan that defers to actual virus transmission numbers or the advice of the most medical experts as a barometer for when reopening might happen more safely. 

Legault’s rhetoric has also changed swiftly, from “flattening the curve,” in March to the unproven concept of “herd immunity,” to “social reasons.” The latter refers to a superficial if not disingenuous mental health narrative that the government has settled on to justify their push to reopen the economy prematurely.

Why not strengthen shelters for women and children experiencing domestic violence, food donation programs, and helplines? Because that doesn’t suit the business interests pushing for a “reopening”. Legault’s government deems it safer to endanger the lives of children, their families, and their teachers. 

While Legault’s CAQ party is fond of pointing out that parents can choose whether or not to send their children, the parents most likely to have to make this difficult choice are among those living under the poverty line and yet deemed “essential” enough to be forced back to work.

The danger to people in Quebec

The government’s decision to impose a reopening schedule while abandoning its previous approach was made despite the fact that Quebec – and Montreal in particular – are experiencing a continual rise of infection rates. 

As of May 8, Quebec had 2725 deaths, or 321 per million, one of the highest rates in the world – almost three times higher than the rest of Canada.

Despite the personal tragedies endured by over 4600 people who have now died in Quebec, we are continually told that reopening is inevitable and that Quebecers are living “two realities,” meaning that the crisis is only a pressing reality in the CHSLDs. The statement is not just problematic – because it relegates our older population to a second, inferior class – it is also simply untrue. 

In Montreal, reports of sharply rising community-level transmission, overrun hospitals forced to transport patients as far away as Trois-Rivieres, and outbreaks in essential worker daycares, meat processing plants, grocery stores and prisons are daily news. Reports of deaths and serious health complications among young, healthy adults and children alike are increasing. Indeed, the “two realities” Quebecers are living can be found in the gap between our government’s messaging and the facts on the ground.

Teachers face impossible choices, schools become warehouses for the poor

For teachers outside of Montreal, as for all other workers deemed “essential” since the start of this crisis, the return to work has been treated as mandatory. Fear of catching the virus, or of infecting families and loved ones is not considered sufficient reason to refuse work. 

In line with their tendency to move swiftly from one narrative to another to best suit their purposes, the CAQ, facing a shortage of workers in daycares and schools, changed its guidance overnight from “workers over the age of 60 are at risk” to “workers over the age of 70 are at risk,” forcing many teachers and daycare educators in their 60s to return to work or lose their jobs, despite legitimate fears. Even the US Center for Disease Control insists that people older than 65 are at higher risk of severe complications. 

For young children, this is an unnecessary social and scientific experiment. Due to teachers’ inability to reopen safely, schools will serve as little more than warehouses for kids, with students largely confined to their seats for 7 hours a day, without art or physical education, without the meal programs the government listed among its reasons for reopening, without support for special needs, and without protective equipment for frightened teachers.

It appears these will be “poor schools for poor children,” with some school administrators admitting they will keep their children home rather than subject them to these conditions, and the government advising parents who can to keep their children at home. In other words, well-off professionals who can work from home will do so, and the children of the vulnerable will be forced into an environment both dangerous and unstimulating, only widening Quebec’s sharp preexisting social divides. 

Reopening rhetoric fuels regressive employment practices, stokes resistance

Encouraged by the CAQ’s business-first mentality, corporations and employers have repeatedly ignored the warnings and demands of vulnerable workers seeking meaningful protections against the virus. Meanwhile, the CNESST, which oversees labour conditions and outlines safety protocols, has yet to rule on workers’ rights to refuse unsafe workplaces in 158 cases, delaying decisions under pressure from employers. 

In the meantime, opposition to Quebec’s reopening is being heard far and wide: from a massive petition signed by nearly 300,000 people, to community voices in hotspots like Montreal-Nord, to front line workers in hospitals and long term care facilities. Quebec’s own health authorities, its opposition parties, and the rest of the country have become equally critical of the province’s push to reopen, even as we become a bonafide epicentre for COVID-19 transmission. What will it take for life to come first?

COVID-19 response exposes and deepens social and economic divisions

Whose lives will be sacrificed in this reopening? As in the US, UK, and Sweden, the dynamics of who is being most impacted are clear as the pandemic has exposed the deep inequalities within our society, Outbreaks are concentrated in poor and racialized communities, prisons, old age homes, migrant worker camps, and among health care workers. It is clear that risk is not distributed evenly. 

Research from the UK shows that black people are four times more likely to die of COVID-19 than white people, due to existing social inequalities and racism. The growing infection rate in Montreal’s poorest neighbourhoods demonstrate these very same risks. The fact is, people have become expendable in the face of the needs of the economy – and some communities are being treated as more expendable than others. Our most vulnerable communities will only be further depleted as the economy is progressively reopened. 

Reopening the economy in the midst of a pandemic is not in the best interest of human beings. Instead, our government might work to provide adequate shelter, access to food, and access to support services for all. If the Legault government had the best interests of people at heart, they would also quickly move to free nonviolent prisoners, ensuring safety for all, regardless of social status, background or personal history. Quebecers would also be given the choice to stay home and refuse unsafe work conditions.

Will children, parents, and public sector workers be forced to take part in an unsafe experiment placing themselves and their loved ones, families and communities at grave risk to ensure business continues as usual? 

We do have a choice, and it amounts to a lot more than choosing unsafe work over going hungry or homeless. We must find ways to stay the course until the curve flattens, the guidelines set out by the WHO are fulfilled, and until we have the ability to trace contact, test, and reduce the number of cases. Corporate profit-seekers and their federations have been steering much of the policy of deconfinement. The large powerful lobbies of Quebec Inc. like le Conseil du Patronat, have been in regular meetings with the ministers of the economy and labour. The global consulting firm McKinsey Inc. was hired by the Quebec government to consult on the reopening of the economy and to advise the department of public health on its deconfirment plan. Corporate lobbies should not be setting public policy; they are only too willing to sacrifice the health and well-being of our communities.

The moment calls for creative action

While we cannot take to the streets to make our demands heard, we need to make them loud and clear by whatever means possible. Throughout many cities around the world, people have gone out onto their balconies in support of essential workers. 

We are encouraging Montrealers to do the same in an effort to say, “There are no essential workers, only essential people!”. 

We are demanding a full stop to the reopening of the economy and schools until it is considered safe for all. We do not have to put ourselves at risk of contracting the virus and we do not have to live with the decisions made by a political and economic class that sees our lives as expendable to their interests. It is their leadership that is expendable. Only through meaningful solidarity we slow the spread of the virus. It’s time to make an important choice: we must value life over the unyielding needs of the economy.

Lets make our voices heard by banging pots and pans and putting up online banners to show that our demands are more pressing than the demands of the economy!