Nathalie Roy’s time at the Ministry of Culture was not a long calm river. Through a pandemic that hit the community hard, the minister had her hands full with heritage issues and a reform of the status of the artist that was slow to materialize. But at the end of the day, the main interested party stubbornly defends her record and does not recognize any major errors.
“Outside of the pandemic, I pretty much did everything I wanted to do. Sometimes it took longer than usual. But everything I said I was going to do, I did. I kept my word,” says Nathalie Roy, who is pleased, among other things, to have succeeded in having her new law on the status of the artist unanimously adopted, after years of waiting.
But his greatest pride is to have loosened the purse strings during the pandemic to save a cultural environment weighed down by successive confinements. In the end, the industry will never have been so showered with aid of all kinds, including the audiovisual sector, even if the film sets did not have to stop for long periods. Regardless, these investments were essential, underlines the minister.
“Yes, this strategy was questionable, and it was questioned, moreover. But I wanted to make sure that when it resumed, all of our cultural institutions were going to be there. It wasn’t easy, but we really gave our all. I didn’t want anyone to lose. In this regard, my strategy has paid off,” explains Nathalie Roy. The number of film shoots in Quebec will reach a record level this summer, and ticket sales for indoor shows have resumed their cruising speed in view of the fall, she did not fail to assert during her presentation. a telephone interview with The duty.
This in-depth interview with the Minister took some time to complete, despite our repeated requests. During the past four years, Nathalie Roy has tried to be discreet in the media. In Quebec, the distrust of the Minister of Culture towards the press is an open secret. A reaction that could surprise, coming from an ex-journalist, formerly a star presenter of TQS.
“My role is not to be in the spotlight, but to make sure daily that the artists are,” replies the one who has sat in the National Assembly since 2012.
Minister of Culture since the election of the CAQ in 2018, Nathalie Roy has nevertheless found herself in the spotlight a few times, and not always for the right reasons.
At the start of her term of office, many political analysts saw her as a weak link in the Council of Ministers. In September 2019, the Prime Minister took away the French language file from him and gave it to Simon Jolin-Barrette.
During the same period, there were successive departures from the ministry and its cabinet. In four years, Nathalie Roy will have known no less than four chiefs of staff and three deputy ministers. “It’s like that in all departments. There’s always a lot of movement,” she says, downplaying the situation, without elaborating further on the subject.
Several players in the community also confide that they had difficulty establishing a link with the ministry in the first two years of the legislature. Behind the scenes, we remember a minister erased, that we did not feel comfortable with the files of the hour. However, the pandemic will mark a turning point.
“We have to admit that we had a good relationship from day 1 of the pandemic. The problem in normal times, and this is true for all governments, is that there are too many players between the artists and the department. But there, we no longer had time to get stuck in the flowers of the carpet. We were in direct communication, and that’s why we were so effective, ”says the president of the Union des artistes, Sophie Prégent, who even goes so far as to openly wish for the renewal of Nathalie Roy’s mandate. to Culture after the next elections.
Heritage, a central issue
Even the opposition recognizes that the minister was able to snatch record budgets for culture during the health crisis. We also welcome the adoption at the beginning of the month of the new law on the status of the artist, which comes with all kinds of new protections in the workplace for artists.
But Québec solidaire and the Liberal Party reiterate that heritage has been the Minister’s Achilles’ heel throughout the past four years. Certainly, a new law has been adopted to better protect the built heritage, but the opposition parties claim that it does not have enough bite. The last mandate will have been marked, among other things, by controversial demolitions, such as those of the Boileau house, in Chambly, or, more recently, of the Domaine-de-l’Estérel.
“Previous ministers did not apply the law, with regard to the sanctions and prosecutions that are possible in the courts [contre les propriétaires qui procèdent unilatéralement à la démolition d’immeubles classés]. Well, we started doing it, ”retorts Nathalie Roy.
On the subject of heritage, the Liberal critic for culture, Christine St-Pierre, also recalls the whole saga of the Maison Chevalier, this heritage building in Old Quebec sold last fall to the Tanguay family for 2.2 million dollars. “For me, that remains his biggest mistake. That’s what will stay. I still can’t believe that we sold a building of such great value, in which Quebecers had invested a lot, to private interests,” the MNA for Acadie strongly deplores.
But Nathalie Roy does not budge: the sale of Maison Chevalier to Groupe Tanguay was the right thing to do in the circumstances. The building remains protected, and the Tanguay family has undertaken to open the vaults to the general public, she notes.
One thing is certain, the protection of built heritage will remain a major issue over the next four years. Will Nathalie Roy still be the Minister of Culture? In Quebec, there is a rumor that Prime Minister Legault plans to remove him from the Council of Ministers in the event of re-election. There is even talk of her for the post of President of the National Assembly.
“When I read that, I found it very funny. Rumors are just rumours. Me, my only wish is to continue to be an MP, ”assures the one who has already announced that she will seek a fourth term next October in the riding of Montarville, located in the Montreal region, on the South Shore.