An article published in Le Journal de Montréal (JDM) has garnered backlash after claiming the newly announced West Coast oil pipeline will "cost Quebec billions."The quotes come from professor of physics at the University of Montreal Normand Mousseau, Bloc Québécois MP Patrick Bonin, and Québec solidaire MLA Étienne Grandmont."Federal action will reduce Canada's economic diversity to make it even more dependent on a single sector. And it weakens Quebec," Mousseau is quoted as saying.This sentiment is further continued by Bonin, who says that he believes "we are facing a Trans Mountain 2.0; Quebecers will still pay for a pipeline with their taxes, and the federal government will still owe them up to eight billion dollars, probably more."Grandmont called the pipeline announcement "a most scandalous setback, a climate betrayal, period" and said that Quebec must "free itself from this petro-based polluting state.”The claim that Quebec will be footing the bill for the new pipeline has been refuted by many Western Canadians online, with many pointing to the amount of money Quebec receives in equalization payments, mainly from Western provinces..The total cost of the pipeline is believed to be between $35.2 and $43.7 billion, according to the proposal submitted by the Albertan government to the Major Projects Office.It still hasn't been confirmed how much of this will be funded publicly, but the JDM article claims that private funding will only account for ten percent of the total cost.
