Marois tight-lipped on party platform
PQ leader says positions will come from post-election debates and consultations
Brandishing few dollar signs or firm commitments on matters not related to language and secularism, Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois fended off criticism Thursday that her party is postponing decisions until after the Sept. 4 election rather than taking a position during the campaign.
Would a PQ government support oil drilling in the Gulf of St. Lawrence? Would it support or cast off Quebec’s asbestos industry? Is it waffling on university financing? How, exactly, would the PQ “drastically” reduce the province’s dependence on oil, as she promised during a whistle-stop at an ecology centre in Montreal on Thursday?
The answers will come through public consultations after Quebec voters elect the PQ, Marois said as she was grilled by radio host Paul Arcand in the morning and later by reporters about the number of debates, forums and National Assembly hearings she’s been promising to formulate government policy on everything from university financing to energy policy.
“I think we’re responsible,” Marois said, defending herself to Arcand, adding her party’s position on whether to support oil and gas drilling around the Îles de la Madeleine is going to depend on what the people of the Îles de la Madeleine and elsewhere in Quebec have to say.
“I could very well say tomorrow morning we’ll exploit (those resources), and we’ll do this, we’ll do that,” she said. “I said we’ll listen to them. I’m a woman who’s capable of listening. I’m also capable of making decisions. I’ve taken courageous decisions in many situations.”
Still, she also declared: “We won’t deprive ourselves of exploiting our resources if it improves our lot and if it’s done in a safe way and a responsible way.”
The PQ is emboldened by new polls showing the party in the lead, ahead of the Coalition Avenir Québec and the Liberals. But two weeks remain in the campaign.
On universities, Marois has pledged a forum on higher education to be held after the election.
“We’ll propose there … an indexation of tuition fees,” Marois told Arcand, explaining a position she has rarely discussed during the campaign.
Many people still think she’s promising a tuition freeze. However, she said she can foresee “a slight increase, going up with the cost of living.”
It’s not a flip-flop, she added. The party adopted the position on indexation in April 2011, she said.
“It’s a freeze of sorts, because as soon as our salary improves (with a cost of living increase), we’re asked to contribute a little more.”
She has tended to highlight only two positions related to university financing: that the PQ government’s first move would be to cancel the tuition increase planned by Liberal Leader Jean Charest, and that it would repeal the Liberals’ Bill 78, which limits the right to protest.
And while she added a pledge on Thursday for Quebec to reach a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020, and reduce the province’s dependence on oil by 30 per cent by 2020 and by 60 per cent by 2030, Marois had no concrete proposals on how to get there.
In the months following a PQ victory, Marois said, she would set up a group of experts to develop Quebec’s new energy policy in detail. Then she would put the policy to public consultations, she said.
Meanwhile, Marois tacitly confirmed Thursday that she won’t present a financial framework for her party’s promises before the leaders’ first televised debate on Sunday night. However, she insisted the party has calculated the cost of every item in its program, and worked out how it will pay for them.
“I have no problem talking about my election promises, which are all reasonable and calculated,” Marois said.
Arcand tossed Marois an elementary question: Does she consider asbestos to be a danger to people’s health?
“Yes, I consider it very dangerous,” she replied.
So why is the PQ promising a public consultation on the industry’s future rather than a ban?
“We want to do a last goaround,” she said.