This text is part of the special Syndicalism booklet
President of the Central of Democratic Trade Unions (CSD), Luc Vachon is convinced that the government would do well to engage in a more intensive dialogue with civil society. Not only would the exercise be fruitful, but he believes it necessary. Unfortunately, he finds that this is not happening.
“It’s a vicious circle in which all governments get bogged down,” he says. Once elected, they no longer maintain a real dialogue with civil society. And this fold is accentuated with the CAQ. The pandemic has forced a more dirigiste approach to governance and with the strong majority that the CAQ has obtained, this fold is likely to continue. »
A situation that he deplores and that he calls to be corrected. “Public services are a common good, and a common good belongs to civil society,” he says. It is not for an elected government to decide alone what civil society wants for itself. It is up to her to decide and the role of the government is to implement that decision. »
Significant challenges ahead
This dialogue with civil society is all the more important since Luc Vachon believes that Quebec is today at a crossroads. “The challenges are many and everywhere at the same time. The world of work is changing with the arrival of telework, digitization and automation of tasks. How will Quebec society adapt to these changes? »
It is not just the world of work that faces such a challenge. Luc Vachon sees this in all areas, be it education, health, home care, support for an aging population, and so on. “Let’s just take immigration,” he continues. Where are we going with this? We are in the throes of a labor shortage and we are trying to fill it with temporary foreign workers, whereas our problem is permanent. Where are the solutions? »
The solutions, and there are some, can be found, according to Luc Vachon, within civil society. “Quebec has to do some in-depth thinking if it wants to chart the course for the next few years. It is the challenge of a decade that is before us and this challenge cannot be adequately met without an honest dialogue between the government and all the actors of civil society. It is a must. »
Mechanisms to put in place
How to set up this dialogue between the government and civil society? Should the mechanism of the national forum be brought out of the mothballs? “The national forum is an excellent idea, insofar as we understand that it can only be the start of a reflection on a given subject, he believes. It is an illusion to believe that a forum can settle in a few days of discussion challenges as important as those that Quebec faces, for example, in the field of health. But a national forum can serve as a starting point for such reflection. »
Should we multiply national forums, not only on the various social issues, but also over time, that is to say by repeating them, or should we invent new ones? “For some time, Quebec has lost the habit of this kind of collective reflection, he continues, and we must take this into account. But the more one does something, the more adept one becomes at doing it. And if Quebec resolutely engages in such an exercise in collective reflection, I am certain that we will be able to put in place the right mechanisms that will allow us to carry out such reflection successfully. »
The work does not stop once the reflection is over. “Collective reflection allows us to define the destination we want to reach, continues Luc Vachon, but we still have to implement it, and that is the task of the government. But we need monitoring committees to ensure that this is done. This type of more collective governance requires a change of culture in which the plans of society are no longer just electoral plans, but those of society as a whole. »
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, relating to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.