(Quebec) Opposition parties plot to block Parliament. It was Conservative MP Claire Samson who sold the wick on Tuesday, in a video she shot “live from her bed”, launched government parliamentary leader Simon Jolin-Barrette on Wednesday.
Posted at 3:21 p.m.
“The member for Iberville yesterday in her “live” live from her bed, her bedroom, […] said […] that she had contacted each of the opposition groups, and that we were going to make time on Bill 28, ”he reproached.
“So we are going to block Parliament, with the collaboration of opposition colleagues, that’s what she said. […] So, do you see how politics is done on the Conservative Party side, Mr. President? »
The caquistes then circulated the said video, in which Mme Samson declares having “spoken to representatives of all the other oppositions, and when it goes to article by article, we will make time”.
Adoption of the principle
The government of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) is asking for the cooperation of the opposition, in order to quickly pass Bill 28 aimed at ending the state of health emergency.
Opposition parties, however, call this bill a “masquerade” and a “deception”, because it extends certain exceptional powers of the government until December 31, 2022.
The CAQ has been governing with the help of the state of health emergency – which gives it full powers to circumvent collective agreements and award contracts without calls for tenders – since March 13, 2020.
When presenting his Bill 28, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, argued that he should keep decrees allowing him to use temporary workers and different vaccinators.
During the debate on whether to adopt the principle on Wednesday, he said that “those 29,000 fewer people would put a lot of pressure on our health network which does not need to have this additional pressure”.
Mr. Dubé also wants to extend or improve contracts for the storage and transportation of equipment that were concluded by mutual agreement during the pandemic, up to five years following the end of the health emergency.
“Going to a call for tenders would represent a significant increase in storage costs,” he argued, before repeating, twice rather than once, the words of his colleague Jolin-Barrette and denouncing the video by Claire Samson.
“What was my surprise, Mr. President, when I saw the video of the member for Iberville circulating that there would be a consensus of the opposition to slow down the bill, to make time”, s he exclaimed.
Right to speak
For their part, the opposition parties denied having concluded such an agreement and claimed their right to speak. “What does collaboration mean? Applaud? It doesn’t work the same,” railed the liberal Monsef Derraji.
“There is no dark machination that is unfolding,” said Québec solidaire spokesperson for health, Vincent Marissal.
He accuses the government of spreading “all kinds of vaguely conspiratorial rumors about the opposition, which together will quietly foment a systematic blocking of the bill”.
“That says more about the CAQ’s obsession with the Conservative Party of Quebec than about our own position on the bill,” added Mr. Marissal.
The parliamentary leader of the Parti Québécois, Joël Arseneau, for his part tweeted: “It is false! We have no intention of obstructing. […] Member for Iberville […] is not the spokesperson for the opposition. »