CAQ youth wing wants sustainability, but that doesn’t necessarily mean constantly talking about the environment

The youth wing (people aged 16-30) of the Coalition Avenir Québec (Coalition of Quebec’s Future) party has said that they’re looking for elected officials which see beyond 4-year re-election cycle to secure a sustainable plan for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren thereafter. However, for the youth wing, sustainable action plans don’t necessarily include environmental considerations.

According to CTV News and The Canadian Press, climate change was not mentioned in “any of the proposed resolutions that will be voted on.”

According to Paquette, the outgoing president of the youth wing, climate change is important to the youth wing, but they have already talked about it during their May CAQ General Council meeting, and don’t feel the issue needs to be brought up again so soon.

Paquette said that the May meeting was exclusively about “the environment, the fight against climate change, the green economy and sustainable development.”

He further explains that the CAQ had roughly thirty proposals “that had been adopted exclusively on the theme of the environment, both in terms of the use of hydroelectric resources and the use of single-use plastics…”

Paquette asserts that the youth wing played a significant role in coming up with the ideas related to climate change, and that there were other matters to talk about at this congress.

“Among the resolutions that will be voted on is one that would push the Legault government to allow the creation of student rooms within seniors’ residences, which Paquette said would reduce the isolation of seniors while encouraging young people to volunteer in exchange for low-cost rent,” reports CTV News and The Canadian Press.

“The youth wing will also vote on resolutions pushing the administration to be more politically and economically independent from the rest of Canada and to sound an alarm over the costs of the healthcare system.”

Being that the CAQ is primarily a ‘Quebec-first’ nationalist party, it should come as no surprise that securing Quebec’s political and semi-national identity within Canada would take precedence, even over the environment, at many of their meetings.