After the next elections, will the mayors of Quebec become, de facto, the real opposition to the CAQ government? The question is relevant for two reasons. Firstly because of our electoral system, which could well give nearly a hundred deputies to the CAQ with the 42% or 43% of the votes that the polls currently give it.
Posted May 15
With four parties vying for around two dozen seats, the parliamentary opposition is likely to be weak and scattered. In addition, as things stand, none of the leaders of the four opposition parties are certain of being elected in their constituency. This could mean one or more leadership races that will take up a lot of time and energy…outside Parliament.
In the circumstances, as nature abhors a vacuum, opposition to the CAQ could well manifest itself elsewhere than in the National Assembly.
We have already begun to see it during the last congress of the Union of Quebec Municipalities, there is currently a new generation of mayors and elected municipal officials who do not have the same priorities as the Legault government.
Unlike their elders, these mayors have no intention of sticking with the ruling party in the hope of advancing their issues. In particular in terms of the environment and global warming, they and they believe that they and they have the right to speak out loud and clear, even if it does not suit the government in place.
We have seen several examples of this in recent months. The quiet but persistent resistance of Valérie Plante forced the government to dump the Caisse de depot and consider another public transit project for Montreal’s east end.
PHOTO YAN DOUBLET, THE SUN
Bruno Marchand answers questions from journalists
The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, simply does not intend to remain silent on the third link project, which he considers inadmissible, both in terms of the environment and urban development.
And keep an eye out for the complicity that unites the mayoress of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, and the mayor of Laval, Stéphane Boyer, both on housing and land use planning issues.
We could cite many others, because it is a whole new generation of municipal politicians who were elected last November and who are much more concerned with environmental issues and quality of life than their predecessors.
The President of the Union of Quebec Municipalities and Mayor of Gaspé, Daniel Côté, summed up the situation well by saying that climate change is not just one issue among many others: “It is the priority that must guide our decisions… All the municipalities are united on this important issue, we want it. This is the number one challenge of our time. »
However, as we have seen since the beginning of his mandate, “the number one challenge of our time” is far from being a priority for the CAQ government. At the end of his mandate, it has even become more than ever his blind spot.
We cannot seriously claim that the third link will not be a factor of urban sprawl on the Lévis side. The same is true for highway construction. Again this week, the Advisory Committee on Climate Change – which advises the Government of Quebec in these matters – published a report which advises to stop the development of highways in Quebec.
But, in Quebec, who says election campaign says promises of new highways. The ink was not dry on the report that Premier Legault had made it clear that he had no intention of following this recommendation.
There is another issue, a financial one, which will become a dispute between the Government of Quebec and the municipalities, that of municipal taxation, which condemns cities to be almost exclusively dependent on property tax.
It’s an old debate. The property tax was a good instrument when it came to providing services to property: roads, police, firefighters, etc. But cities now do much more than that and have to deal with all sorts of other issues, from culture to services for seniors and economic development.
Not only is the property tax not adapted to these responsibilities, but it also has a perverse effect: it encourages urban sprawl, since the best way for a city to have new income is still to develop new neighbourhoods, which are necessarily ever further from the centre.
On this too, the Prime Minister is intractable: the cities will be able to have more powers – in matters of expropriation, for example – but there is no question of reviewing municipal taxation.
Cities and the government of Quebec are already on a collision course. So, if after the elections of October 3, the parliamentary opposition were to be reduced to its simplest expression, we should not be surprised if the mayors of Quebec become, by force of circumstance, a kind of “unofficial opposition “.