PQ downplays Montreal’s motion against charter

CARLETON-SUR-MER — Montreal’s position was not so much a rejection of the proposed charter of values as a welcome contribution to the debate.

The Coalition Avenir Québec’s line calling the plan too radical “augurs well” for future talks because at least the party is open to discussion.

Parti Québécois Democratic Institutions Minister Bernard Drainville was spinning headlines in his own fast and furious fashion Wednesday as the government’s proposed Charter of Quebec Values continued to make waves.

Call it trying to calm the political waters after stirring things up with a political trial balloon.

“What’s happening in Quebec now is a beautiful thing,” Drainville told reporters as he walked into a party caucus meeting in a resort in this picture-perfect Gaspé city.

Despite a week of negative reports and inflammatory headlines — particularly in some media outside the province — Drainville said he thinks the debate in Quebec is and will actually be quite serene.

“We are realizing elected officials and citizens are getting interested in this question, he said. “We see they are really interested. They are reflecting. Montreal is reflecting too.”

And Drainville got a political break later the same day when the Quebec Liberals appeared to soften their official line on the issue.

“We are in constant evolution because society is evolving,” Liberal finance critic Pierre Paradis told reporters, in a first sign the party might be willing to entertain some elements of a values charter.

For the record, the Liberals in the past had pitched Bill 94, which would have obliged public-sector workers to offer services without any form of face coverings. The bill died on the order paper when the government fell.

Paradis may be preparing the terrain for Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard to make a shift.

So far, Couillard has been vague on the issue — considered a natural vote-getter for the PQ and the CAQ because of their francophone base membership.

And in a minority government, Drainville needs the support of the other parties to move forward.

But while Drainville continued to argue doing nothing about the religious accommodation issue could lead to tensions, some member of the PQ’s own rural caucus conceded the concept is not making waves in their home ridings.

“I don’t hear any talk of a crisis here,” Bonaventue MNA Sylvain Roy said arriving for the caucus in his home riding.

“We don’t hear much about this in the great north,” added Ungava MNA Luc Ferland. “It’s not a concern for people in northern Quebec.”

Deputy-premier François Gendron, who represents Abitibi, insisted it’s not because the issue is mainly in Montreal that the government should ignore it.

“It’s a bit more of an urban problem but there are sensitivities in the regions too,” said regions minister Gaétan Lelièvre, the MNA for Gaspé.

“The charter is for everyone, for all Quebecers,” Drainville responded when asked if the clear split between the island and the rest of Quebec bothered him.

“Affirming our values is a good thing and I think the vast majority of Quebecers will find the proposal we will present measured and balanced.”

He did not say so directly, but the PQ believes the issue could help it in an election — just as it did the old Action démocratique du Québec party.

In 2006, the ADQ — now incarnated by the CAQ — was mired at 15 per cent in the polls. Fifteen months later and after cranking up emotions on the issue, it bagged 30 per cent of the vote and elected four MNAs.

And PQ MNAs seemed less moribund arriving for the caucus, possibly because some think the party got the political break it needed in Premier Pauline Marois’s handling of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy.

While the party is still lower than the Liberals in the polls, Marois’s approval ratings are up.

And the PQ itself created its own kind of election buzz in this region as cabinet ministers fanned out in the Gaspé’s four ridings this week, with no less than 26 government funding announcements.

Since May, Quebec has poured a total of $54 million into the region. This week’s announcements alone total $15 million.

And Natural Resources Minister Martine Ouellet announced here that Quebec would open tenders for bids for the creation of another 450 megawatts of wind turbine projects.

The industry represents 800 jobs in the Lower St-Lawrence and Gaspé regions, and 2,000 across Quebec.

The PQ now holds the four ridings on the Gaspé Peninsula but won them with small margins with the Liberals gunning to get them back.

pauthier@ montrealgazette.com Twitter: philipauthier