CAQ stumbles ahead with its policies
Opposition, pundits swarm over government’s apparent flip-flops
QUEBEC For most politicians, a judge slapping an injunction on a piece of legislation — even before it has been adopted — might be considered what you call ‘a bad day at the office.’
So would a rap on the knuckles by the province’s ombudsman, the person responsible for looking out for the little people of this world, after your government has only been in office for five months.
And how about the optics of spending years in opposition lambasting the government for refusing to refund consumers for millions in over-billing by HydroQuébec? After making populist political gains off the issue by launching a petition demanding the money be returned, you decide, once in power, to keep a good chunk of the nest egg.
“I am counting on you to tell people we never promised during 30 days of the election campaign that we would refund $1.5 billion in over billing,” said Premier François Legault, arguing things the party talked about before the campaign are not actually the same as real election promises.
Legault’s remarks left the media puzzled. Columnists and radio hosts blasted him for the apparent flip-flop.
This and other incidents have fed the impression that this Coalition Avenir Québec regime is making things up as it goes along. While its commitments on some issues seem firm — the ban on religious symbols for example — others are as fleeting as the morning dew.
As the legislature recessed Friday for a two-week March break — Legault will be in Florida after taking almost no time off since the election — an unmistakable impression of disorder lingers in the air.
A sure signal is that the three opposition parties have decided time’s up; the government’s political honeymoon officially ended with the hydro flip-flop.
It seems many folks are keeping lists of policy changes, flip-flops and backtracking and minority communities are ducking for cover over what else is coming down the pipe.
“It only took the premier a few months to become arrogant and disconnected from the demands of the people,” said veteran PQ MNA Sylvain Gaudreault. He announced Thursday that his party, to spite the CAQ, is re-launching that same hydro refund petition.
“It’s time to say it: the CAQ was better at criticizing than governing,” added Liberal interim leader Pierre Arcand.
“Day after day, he (Legault) continues to blame the previous government. The premier and his team should try and concentrate on presenting legislation that holds the road and respects their electoral promises.”
The road ahead is mined with controversies with the CAQ apparently willing — despite the beating they have taken in the last weeks — to plow doggedly forward in the belief their political mandate and 75 seats in the legislature makes them bulletproof.
Immigration, pre-kindergarten, cannabis, the gun control registry, abolishing school boards, the debate over Quebec values and religious symbols, a showdown with Ottawa ... the list goes on.
None of these is a simple issue and already the CAQ is being told its tendency to propose one-sizefits-all solutions to complex problems won’t cut it.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante delivered that message herself a few weeks ago when she made a rare visit to the provincial capital — where she has few pals — to denounce the government’s pot legislation and ask for the city to be exempt from Bill 2.
Yet history shows the most successful Quebec governments govern with caution, testing the waters and building larger consensus before budging an inch.
Former premier Jean Charest would run almost every major policy decision his government was about to make by a host of players — from the corporate world to the province’s powerful unions.
Legault, a former airline executive who prides himself as being a dealmaker, does not have the same style and admits to an impatient temperament. In other words, he’s a guy in a hurry, anxious to get past thorny identity issues that he is uncomfortable with so he can focus on the economy.
Observing the government’s behaviour over the last few weeks, veteran Radio-Canada political analyst and broadcaster Michel C. Auger, wrote recently Legault’s government is in such a hurry to impress, it does not want to take the time “to make friends with anybody.”
The best example of haste is the CAQ’s plan to create a promised pre-kindergarten network within five years, even if there are not enough teachers and available space to make a go of it and it is strongly opposed by the public daycare lobby. The debacle over immigration applications is a close second.
Legault doesn’t really like to discuss the issue of voter discontent this early in his mandate.
“I don’t feel this wave,” he told reporters two weeks ago. “With the exception of the opposition, public daycare movement and a few journalists.”
But the government has yet to find a way to stride boldly forward with its agenda without stumbling in its quest to rapidly tick off every item on its electoral ‘to-do’ list.
The lack of experience shows daily with some of Legault’s ministers positively slapstick in their way of operating and addressing the media (when they are not trying to avoid reporters altogether by ducking down the hallway).
The scant nature of the CAQ’s policy book really became obvious in the last four weeks as it got down to the detailed work of presenting, defending and adopting legislation.
The most obvious example is Bill 9, the CAQ’s new immigration bill that foresees, among other elements, the shredding of 18,000 applicant files.
The government wants to replace the old first-come, first-served system with a new digital version where worker skills are matched with available jobs.
The untold story on this bill is that even government strategists were uncomfortable with Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette’s zeal to proceed quickly with the plan (seen as the warm-up exercise to the bill banning religious symbols).
The lack of readiness came back to haunt the minister in the form of an injunction last week against the shredding. The CAQ also clearly underestimated the backlash against the shredding plan.
“The devil is in the details,” said ombudsman Marie Rinfret, who emerged last week as a voice of reason in the chaos the government sparked. She described the shredding plan as “inhuman and bureaucratic,” considering it affects thousands of lives.
Somebody, she said, ought to apologize.
Unwilling to cede an inch of ground, Jolin-Barrette resorted to the CAQ’s trademark weapon of choice when it comes to being contested or questioned: blame the previous Liberal government. Jolin-Barrette went even further last week, breaking an unwritten rule and criticizing the ombudsman, who is independent, herself.
Down the hall at another committee, junior health minister Lionel Carmant struggled to defend Bill 2, tightening the regulation of cannabis consumption and increasing the legal age to use it from 18 to 21. In his case, Carmant chose to not debate witnesses who questioned the logic of the bill, leading Arcand to say such an approach flies in the face of good democratic practices.
In both cases, the Liberals accused the CAQ of wanting to stifle dissent and rush its legislation into law by lording it over the opposition. The CAQ accused the Liberals of obstructing.
Tempers flared daily, but no more than the day the much more experienced Liberal leader Sébastien Proulx outfoxed Jolin-Barrette, who is the CAQ house leader, with a procedural move that paralyzed the whole house for two hours.
“He (Jolin-Barrette) had his own ideas: table a bill Thursday, start hearings Tuesday,” Proulx told the house. “I’m afraid that’s not how things work here.”
“The Liberals do not seem to have understood the message sent by the population: Put an end to your arrogant ways,” Jolin-Barrette responded.
But other analysts have warned the CAQ about the dangers of just barging ahead on the basis of its platform and the desire for change, which remains a fragile base on which to build. pauthier@postmedia.com
I don’t feel this wave. With the exception of the opposition, public daycare movement and a few journalists.