Crises don’t justify more gas; they prove we need to get out

You can always count on the Canadian oil and gas industry to take advantage of a crisis to push its agenda.

Are we really surprised to see it shamelessly exploiting the crisis in the Middle East to once again voice the same perpetual demands for production expansion, new pipelines, and sector deregulation under the guise of energy security? What if, instead, we finally understood that our dependence on fossil fuels doesn't just destroy the climate and our health, but collectively impoverishes us for their profit?

Moving past the narrative of chaos engineers

The Canadian oil and gas industry already pulled this stunt during COVID-19, when a secret memo from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) was leaked. It detailed demands for massive relief from federal regulations, a complete halt to the development of new climate policies, and an exemption from the obligation to disclose its lobbying activities to the federal government.

The same scenario played out during the Russian offensive in Ukraine, but this time adding the argument that it was absolutely necessary to help European countries divest from Russian fossil gas. Recently, the need to find new markets for Canadian oil and gas resources was added to its pitch following Donald Trump’s return to power and the launch of his tariff war. In short, the industry's rhetoric adapts to the crisis and context of the day.

Unfortunately, we know what happens next.

The federal government yields to almost every whim and sinks into an obsession with oilsands pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG), wasting our tax dollars to the detriment of our climate targets and collective well-being. In Quebec, this is translating into the return of a potential gas complex project—a sort of "GNL Québec 2.0"—which, this time, would end up not in Saguenay but in Baie-Comeau: the Marinvest Energy project by a Norwegian company.

As we saw after the invasion of Ukraine, the most exposed countries did not conclude that they needed to chain themselves to gas for longer. Instead, they banked on renewables, electrification, and energy efficiency in order to no longer be at the mercy of the geopolitical brutality of hydrocarbons.

Where does Quebec stand in all this?

As long as our economies depend on oil and gas, we will continue to be held hostage by imperialist interests that create and feed off of chaos.

There is an attempt to convince us that we would be shielded from these crises if we exploited our own fossil fuels. Nothing could be further from the truth.

On one hand, even if oil or gas is produced locally, its price is determined by international market rates. On the other hand, wherever natural gas and oil are produced and exported, costs are higher during times of crisis than elsewhere because producers prefer to ship it abroad. Why does Alberta pay more than we do?

Quebec has a massive advantage: its electricity is almost entirely renewable. In such an unstable world, this is no small detail. It is an asset to protect households, institutions, and businesses against the volatility of fossil fuel prices—provided we make the right collective choices.

This means stopping the belief that new fossil fuel infrastructure is the solution. It means stopping the socialization of private risks for the benefit of oil and gas companies. It means investing in what actually makes us more free: sobriety, energy efficiency, planned electrification, demand management, and renewable energy.

The real debate is simple: how do we finally exit an energy system that enriches a few, weakens the world, and exposes us, crisis after crisis, to shocks that we then pretend to discover for the first time?

We must not let the oil and gas industry write the script for this crisis. Quebec has everything to gain by strengthening an energy system that is more stable, more democratic, healthier, and more resilient.

The right answer is not more oil and gas. It is energy autonomy through a true just transition that cares for all living things.

This text was originally published in Le Devoir on March 13, 2026, via the Coalition Sortons le gaz (co-signed by Emmanuelle Rancourt).