Couillard attacks Legault on economy, immigration
Liberal leader says CAQ counterpart unaware of province’s labour shortage
RIVIÈRE-DU-LOUP For the first time in the campaign, Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard deviated from focusing on platform promises and chose instead to tear a strip off his main opponent, Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault, Tuesday morning.
“The greatest weakness of the CAQ is the economy. The great economic risk for Quebec is a CAQ government,” Couillard said during a campaign stop to announce education initiatives in the closely contested Mauricie region.
“Mr. Legault must be the only person in Quebec who is not aware there’s a labour shortage.
“I can’t believe it. He continues. He tries not to talk about it. Perhaps because he doesn’t want to speak about the necessity of bringing in workers from abroad. I don’t know. But he refuses to recognize the existence of the problem.”
For the first five days of the 39day campaign, Couillard hardly mentioned his adversaries. Beyond a brief but attention-sapping brouhaha over the fact Gertrude Bourdon, Couillard’s choice for health minister, was in talks with three parties before choosing his, the Liberal campaign has been relatively staid, focusing on promises for subsidized dental care and hefty child benefit cheques.
There are indications the early days of the campaign have not resonated with a populace still basking in the glow of summer. The polls have the Liberals trailing the CAQ, with many saying they ’re ready for change after nearly 15 years of uninterrupted Liberal governance.
On Tuesday, Couillard suddenly turned up the heat, spurred, he said, by remarks from Legault that Quebec’s labour problems could be solved by creating better jobs that earn $20 to $40 an hour.
“I don’t know of a single business in Quebec, nor a public institution — which includes our schools, our hospitals, our senior centres — that is not struck by this phenomenon,” Couillard said. “Today, a major choice is crystallizing for Quebecers: either we ignore the principal challenge of Quebec, we refuse to act ... because we don’t want to talk about the necessity of bringing in people from elsewhere. Not only that, but we say we are going to have tests and expulsions. That is a risk for Quebec. It’s important that Quebecers realize it.
“Some say, ‘It’s all the same,’ ” Couillard said, referring to complaints the CAQ and the Liberals are promoting similar centralist positions. “Now, it’s not the same at all. Now there is an absolutely fundamental choice.”
Legault has proposed imposing French-language and values tests on immigrants, and reducing the number of immigrants to Quebec from 50,000 a year to 40,000, in order to better integrate them.
Couillard noted Quebec, in fact, has a say over only 30,000 of the immigrants who come to the province each year — those who qualify as economic immigrants, such as qualified workers or entrepreneurs. The federal government handles the remaining 20,000 under its family reunification program, and refugee program.
“You have to at least know the basis of our immigration program before you can talk about it,” Couillard said.
Legault said Tuesday Couillard was poorly placed to speak about immigration, given that the Syrian refugee family Couillard sponsored in his hometown of St-Félicien in 2015 left recently.
Couillard explained last week that the family decided to leave the rural region to be closer to family in Montreal.
“Another proof of Mr. Couillard’s failure,” Legault said. “Personally, he took in refugees into the Saguenay-Lac- St-Jean region, and they chose to leave the region. He wasn’t even capable with those people.”
It was Couillard’s third visit to the Mauricie during the campaign, where the CAQ has pulled strong polling numbers. Couillard announced $400 million annually to upgrade aging schools, and pledged to increase time set aside for physical activities in all elementary schools to 60 minutes a day.
Couillard travelled from TroisRivières in the morning to a CEGEP in Lotbinière, near Quebec City, in the afternoon and on to a Liberal rally at a golf club in Rivière-du-Loup, two hours northeast of Quebec City, in the evening. His party received a boost Tuesday evening with the news the CAQ’s party president and La Prairie candidate had suddenly resigned over controversy surrounding his involvement in high-interest lending firms. Couillard refused to address the news, saying he never comments on other parties’ internal dealings.