Opposition eager to return to National Assembly

CAQ government hopes to make headway on agenda but pandemic still dominates

The new Plexiglas dividers are installed between the seats and the historic room of the legislature has taken on an antiseptic, pandemic feel about it.

But Quebec's politicians are indeed going back to work — in person — Tuesday.

After considerable debate and having obtained the green light from Quebec's public health director, Horacio Arruda, Quebec's National Assembly will resume sitting until June.

A total of 37 out of 125 MNAS can be physically present, which legally constitutes a quorum for work to be done. Work hours are being adjusted to respect the 8 p.m. curfew rules and any hearings into bills in the process of being adopted will be virtual.

For the Coalition Avenir Québec government, the news is good and bad. The good part is the CAQ can proceed with some of its legislative agenda in a semi-normal way, despite how the COVID -19 pandemic has hobbled the pace.

The bad news is it will again be confronted, face-to-face, with an increasingly pumped opposition.

“I don't believe this is a place where it has been unsafe in terms of the pandemic,” Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade said last week as negotiations began on resuming work.

“I believe there is a need for us to be physically at the National Assembly, to make sure that we can ask those questions and get the answers we need,” she said.

That's because Anglade knows how difficult it has been for the three opposition parties to make significant inroads with voters faced with a government which, in the name of its pandemic offensive, has monopolized the media spotlight for months.

Premier François Legault has a strategic advantage on the first day back, too. His news conference where he is expected to announce some softening of the pandemic rules for non-essential businesses in regions less affected by COVID-19 takes place at 5 p.m.

That gives the premier the final word of the day because the first question period of 2021, where the opposition will attack, is at 2 p.m.

Legault has already warned most of the health measures will remain including the curfew, which the government considers a successful measure that citizens are largely respecting.

The opposition parties are nevertheless pumped, noting that on numerous occasions in the last weeks the government has altered and improved its pandemic plan because of their pressure on everything from the homeless to school ventilation.

In this session, they intend to pursue their attacks.

“I think we're past the period of time where Mr. Legault was able, alone, to deal with this crisis,” Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-dubois said last week.

“I think Quebecers now expect opposition parties to be part of the solution and to play their role as a watchdog of the government's actions,” he said.

While Legault's health minister, Christian Dubé, has thus far been steady in his management of the pandemic, the same cannot be said for Education Minister Jeanfrançois Roberge, the opposition's favourite punching bag.

Last week, Parti Québécois education critic Véronique Hivon said Roberge had lost the confidence of the education sector.

While the government was leading in the polls, some of the legislation it has before the house has also been attacked.

Bill 59 reforming health and workplace safety norms has been criticized as a step back for workers.

As for new legislation, a bill forcing food delivery companies like Uber Eats and Doordash to cut their fees is expected.

The biggest piece of legislation, however, is a bill reforming the Charter of the French Language, which is to be presented by the minister responsible for language, Simon Jolin-barrette.

The timing of that bill is up in the air.

“In the short term, the priority of the government is a battle against COVID -19; on health rules, on vaccination and also on the relaunching of the economy,” Jolin-barrette, who is also the CAQ house leader, told TVA last week.

But the CAQ and Legault are clearly anxious to move on from the pandemic as the 2022 election looms closer and closer.

“We are all determined and convinced that we will be able to respect all the electoral promises we made in the 2018 campaign,” Legault said Thursday at a news conference.

I believe there is a need for us to be physically at the National Assembly, to make sure that we can ask those questions