KEEPING HER PROMISES
Pauline Marois makes good on major promises as government also shakes up senior public service
IT IS A DAY OF NEW BEGINNINGS as new Premier Pauline Marois emerges from her first cabinet meeting and promptly announces she is cancelling the tuition hike and portions of Law 12, as well as shutting down the province’s shale gas industry and the Gentilly-2 nuclear reactor. The plan for an arm’s-length transport agency is met with cautious optimism.
QUEBEC — Premier Pauline Marois emerged from her first cabinet meeting to announce she is making good on three of her campaign promises.
“The new government is now in place,” she told reporters on Thursday. “I intend to act rapidly to offer results to Quebecers, starting today, Day One of our mandate.”
The $1,788 university tuition-fee hike, which sparked a drawn-out battle between the previous Liberal government and student associations, has been cancelled, she announced.
And sections of Bill 78, criticized by Quebec’s human rights commission as infringing on fundamental charter rights to freedom of expres- sion and freedom of association, by proposing heavy fines and other sanctions, will be cancelled by decree.
Bill 78, now known as Law 12, also established a modified academic calendar, after suspending the winter-spring session at 14 CEGEPs and 11 universities, where students were staying away from classes. Marois said those non-punitive sections would be maintained.
Quebec’s new premier has ordered the closing of Gentilly-2, Hydro-Québec’s only nuclear reactor.
“I want this gesture to become a symbol of Quebec’s commitment to the environment and the welfare of future generations,” Marois told reporters. The government will provide funding for economic diversity to offset job losses resulting from the shutdown.
And she issued directives on government integrity to her ministers, calling integrity “unavoidable.”
“In fact it is the first of all requirements,” the premier said. “My directives on this are very clear. On this question I will be inflexible.”
Marois maintained her government is committed to balancing Quebec’s budget in the fiscal year 2013-2014 and will manage Quebec’s finances with rigour.
Outgoing Liberal finance minister Raymond Bachand revealed last week that at the end of June the province had a $800-million shortfall in its finances for the current year.
Marois said the in the subsequent three months the hole has grown, and she will meet with Finance Department officials to find out what the exact amount is, but said the shortfall would not stop her government from balancing its budget next year as planned.
Asked about criticism from business groups in Montreal, on Marois noted several of her ministers, in- cluding herself, have MBAs, and Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau has a doctorate in economics, specializing in public finance, calling him “very competent.”
“I have no problem reassuring the business community,” she said. “I can assure them we will not be an anti-business government.”
Marois said she will go ahead with her promise to cancel a $58-million loan from Investissement Québec, a government agency, to reopen the Jeffrey Mine, Quebec’s last asbestos mining operation.
After Marois met reporters, her office announced a major shakeup in Quebec’s senior public service, with a total of 31 nominations.
The senior civil servants provide expertise elected politicians may lack, and ensure their policy proposals are executed.
Luc Monty is the new deputy finance minister, Yves Ouellet, the new secretary, with the rank of deputy minister, of the treasury board, Christine Tremblay becomes deputy minister of the new higher education department, and Bernard Matte is Quebec’s new deputy health minister.
Nathalie Drouin becomes deputy justice minister, Patrick Déry now is deputy minister of natural resources, Michel Audet, who was Quebec’s first representative at UNESCO, was named deputy minister of international relations, and Brigitte Pelletier, who was premier Bernard Landry’s chief of staff, becomes deputy labour minister.
Rachel Laperrière is the new deputy culture minister and Robert Baril is the new deputy immigration minister, succeeding MarieClaude Champoux, who was premier Jean Charest’s press attaché. Champoux becomes interim head of the Commission des normes du travail, Quebec’s labour standards commission.
The buzz word is “constructive dialogue.”
Mayor Gérald Tremblay and business leaders rushed Thursday to congratulate Parti Québécois Premier Pauline Marois on her new cabinet team for Montreal, and said they are eager to get working together on infrastructure and revitalization projects that will keep the city humming.
But the Conseil du patronat didn’t hesitate to cite potential negative fallout some of the PQ’s proposed policies could have on Montreal, particularly when it comes to proposed changes to Bill 101 and fiscal policy.
“I am confident my administration will be able to establish a partnership based on a common vision for metropolitan development and advancement of Montrealers’ priorities,” Tremblay said, insisting it is vital that city officials begin constructive dialogue with members of the Montreal ministerial team as soon as possible.
Key demands Tremblay made on Montreal’s behalf during the election campaign included an infusion of $3 billion over 10 years to complete upgrades of aging roads, water systems and sewers; improvements to public transit, including extension of the métro’s Blue Line, trains to the east and west of the island and an express bus on Pie IX Blvd.; cash to complete the Quartier des Spectacles cultural district; and revitalization of the east end, including decontamination of industrial land and extension of l’Assomption Blvd. to the port.
Just as high on the mayor’s political wish list during the election campaign was “stability,” with Tremblay making a point of saying the province’s only true metropolis was enjoying its strongest economic growth since 1976, the year Montreal hosted the Summer Olympics and the Parti Québécois formed its first government.
Yves-Thomas Dorval, president of the Conseil du patronat, called on cabinet ministers to engage in “a constructive dialogue” with employers and the whole business community with an eye to creating an attractive business climate.
But the business group expressed worries about the PQ’s plans to overhaul the Charter of French Language to require even the smallest businesses to operate in French, measures that it said could have “major repercussions.”
Also troubling to the business group was the PQ’s plan to cancel fee hikes for university tuition and electricity rates, and eliminate the health tax. “A tax increase for those who generate the most wealth — whether they be the most financially comfortable taxpayers or businesses — also brings the genuine risk of an investment slowdown, notably with regard to slated changes to royalties on natural resources.”
The Montreal Board of Trade said it believes the PQ government has understood what the chamber of commerce sees as elements central to the economic development of the greater Montreal region, such as incentives for business ventures, upgrades to public transit and a highly qualified workforce.
“During the election campaign, we underscored how important it is that the metropolitan area be able to play a full role as Quebec’s economic engine,” Michel Leblanc, president of the Montreal Board of Trade, said. “We look forward to working with the premier and members of her cabinet to ensure that the city remains a creative source of wealth and attractive to investors.
“When the metropolis is doing well, all of Quebec benefits,” Leblanc said.
Projet Montréal praised Marois for creating a honeycomb of ministries that will unite municipal affairs, transportation and land use. “For too long, decisions concerning roads and public transportation were made without regard, in contradiction of planning guidelines,” Projet Montréal leader Richard Bergeron said. “Reducing the importance of fossil fuels and the electrification of transportation are good news for the environment and the Quebec economy.”
Bergeron’s colleague, François W. Croteau, who is mayor of Rosemont- La Petite-Patrie, applauded the selection of Jean-François Lisée, the international relations minister and member of the National Assembly for Rosemont, as minister responsible for Montreal.
“This new department innovates and sends a clear message of Montreal’s importance on the international scene and as Quebec’s economic engine.”
Croteau and Bergeron also hailed the appointment of Daniel Breton, the MNA for Saint-Marie-SaintJacques who has been an outspoken critic on the Turcot Interchange project, to the environment portfolio.
“These new nominations and shifts in ministerial focus seem to augur well for a change in the way Quebec views Montreal’s future,” Bergeron said.
During the election campaign, the PQ promised to create a ministerial committee representing Montreal. It also vowed to invest in public transit, extend the métro to Anjou and reach an agreement with the city on integrated urban revitalization.