A session royally on inflation

Parliament will come back to life on Tuesday. Eight weeks after the general elections, the deputies are summoned for a short session of the National Assembly. If François Legault’s opening speech, tinged with green, will be a highlight, the oath to the king, inflation and a gift to the elders will hold the attention during the two weeks of work.

A speech tinged with green

With an electoral slogan like “Let’s continue” and a new Council of Ministers as part of the continuity, we should not expect that the opening speech of the parliamentary session will hold any big surprises on Wednesday. As required by this traditional exercise tracing the path of the mandate, François Legault will resume his electoral promises – such as the reorganization of the health network, the shift to home care, the addition of services for students in difficulty and the acceleration of the renovation of schools. But as we have seen in his speeches since his victory on October 3, he is expected to put a touch of green in his speech by making the green economy an important theme. According to the signals sent in recent weeks, François Legault should insist on the importance of not only curbing the decline of French, but also reversing the trend.

A woman in the presidency, a controversy over the vice-presidency

Before this opening speech, and as required by procedure, the first day of the parliamentary session, Tuesday, will be devoted to the election of the President of the National Assembly. A woman will hold this position for only the second time in history, after Louise Harel in 2002-2003. The caquiste Nathalie Roy, former Minister of Culture, will succeed François Paradis, who left politics. Two vice-presidents from the government will also be appointed: Chantal Soucy and Sylvain Lévesque. The appointment of the third vice-president, which goes to a member of the official opposition, has turned into controversy in the Liberal Party of Quebec. Frantz Benjamin will get the job, which was coveted by Marie-Claude Nichols. The latter was expelled from the Liberal caucus because she refused the other responsibilities that Dominique Anglade wanted to entrust to her. The decision amplified the challenge to M’s leadership.^me Anglade, who eventually resigned. Marc Tanguay has become interim leader of the PLQ and will cross swords with François Legault in the Blue Room on Thursday, during the first question period.

Oath to the King

The three deputies of the Parti Québécois have not taken the oath to the king. Result: they cannot sit in the Blue Room and risk expulsion if they show up there on Tuesday. Will they dare to go that far? They have not announced their intention yet. For its part, the Legault government will quickly table a bill to make the oath to the king optional. Québec solidaire also intends to present a legislative text — it had already tabled a bill to this effect during the previous legislature. After refusing to do so on the day of their swearing-in ceremony, his deputies took the oath to the king last week, in private, so they could sit in the House this week.

Bill 1 Thursday

The Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, will table as promised, obviously Thursday, Bill 1 of the second term of the Legault government. The objective: cap the increase in government fees at 3% per year. This measure is part of the “anti-inflation shield” presented by François Legault during the election campaign. The government hopes that this short bill will be passed by the end of the session on December 9, a very tight deadline. But if it were to be postponed until the resumption of the session in February, there would be no impact for the taxpayer: Quebec already adopted a regulation in November that limits the increase in rates that must be indexed to 3%. at 1^er January (such as driver’s license and registration). QS will lobby for the government to freeze fares for a year.

Fitzgibbon and Hydro-Quebec rates

Pierre Fitzgibbon will also present Thursday – probably – his first bill since his appointment as Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy. It will cap the indexing of Hydro-Quebec rates, another election promise. It would not exactly be a copy-paste of the bill tabled by his predecessor Jonatan Julien in June and died on the order paper with the call of the elections, they say behind the scenes. However, the principle will remain the same: ensure that prices do not increase by more than 3%. Remember that without this measure, rates would be increased by 6.2% in the spring due to a law that the Legault government had itself passed under gag order in December 2019. It had decided that Hydro- Quebec would be increased in line with inflation, but he had neglected at the time the risk that the cost of living would increase significantly in the future. The new bill therefore aims to correct the problem.

A gift to seniors

After $400 to $600 checks to everyone earning less than $100,000, Finance Minister Eric Girard will deliver on another commitment in his December 8 economic and fiscal update. It will increase the maximum amount of financial support paid to people aged 70 and over from $411 to $2,000. The measure is part of the “anti-inflation shield” presented in the campaign. It particularly benefits the less well-off seniors. It would cost $1.6 billion, while checks of $400 to $600 represent a bill of $3.5 billion. Consequence: the deficit expected this year will swell. It would amount to 7.6 billion (after the payment to the Generations Fund which is used to reduce the weight of the debt), according to the financial framework presented by the Coalition avenir Québec in the countryside. We will know on December 8 the new expected budget balance. The update will also reflect a government concern for 2023: the effects of the expected economic slowdown.