Marois takes business message to NYC
Premier plans to meet with potential U.S. investors
NEW YORK — Away from the hustle and bustle of Quebec’s domestic politics, Premier Pauline Marois plans to take Manhattan on Thursday.
Marois said her businessfocused New York visit will mean she has travelled to “three continents” since her election in September.
“Africa for the Summit of the Francophonie, Europe for a fruitful visit to Paris, which allowed Quebec to re-establish the position of non-indifference and no-interference with France, and the United States with this New York visit,” she told reporters at a news conference last week, summing up her first session of the National Assembly as premier.
But Marois is leaving behind what Public Security Minister Stéphane Bergeron described as “extremely troubling” allegations that senior Sûreté du Québec officers used a secret fund, intended to pay police informants in drug cases, to pay illegal separation bonuses to departing officers.
Marois will be accompanied in New York by International Relations Minister Jean-François Lisée, who was to arrive by train from Washington on Wednesday night, after his own two-day mission meeting U.S. officials, policy institutes and diplomats.
But Lisée comes to New York under a shadow, after the Journal de Montréal revealed he is still receiving his salary from the Université de Montréal, in addition to his salary as a minister.
Lisée announced Wednesday the money will be channelled instead into aid for dropouts in his Rosemont riding who want to find a job.
But Laurent Lessard, the Liberal international rela- tions critic, said the “Lisée affair” ranked with the “Breton affair,” referring to former PQ environment minister Daniel Breton, who said he resigned to save the Quebec government embarrassment after revelations about his personal life.
Marois is to speak Thursday to a sold-out audience of 250 people at the Foreign Policy Association. Her message is that the PQ is serious about holding down spending and managing Quebec’s economy in the hope she can draw more foreign investment.
Former Liberal premier Jean Charest also spoke to the Foreign Policy Association in 2003 on his first trip to New York as head of the Quebec government.
Lisée, in his role as Quebec’s international trade minister, will announce Expansion Québec, a program to help small Quebec businesses wishing to set up shop in New York.
Marois will not be meeting the bond-rating agencies, as the opposition parties have suggested, but will have meetings with potential investors.