(Sherbrooke) In his first public outing in a month, Prime Minister François Legault says he wants to avoid “distractions” and “refocus” on his government’s priorities, such as improving health and education services.
On Wednesday, in a brief speech at the opening of his two-day caucus meeting in Sherbrooke, he invited his deputies to turn the page on last year’s controversies and return to the basic CAQ game.
“We are going to wish each other a good political new year with, how should I put it, fewer distractions than in 2023, and return to our five priorities: […] education, health, the economy, the environment and protecting our identity,” he said during this meeting which aims to prepare for the resumption of work in the National Assembly on January 30.
The Prime Minister insisted: “In 2024, particularly in the session which is beginning, we really want to refocus, to be able to concentrate on these five priorities”.
Most lawmakers refused to stop and respond to reporters. One of them summarized the slogan sent by their leader.
“The word discipline is to try to stay in the caucus to give our impressions rather than giving in to all the possible opinions” as was done “a little too often” last year. last, said Mario Asselin (Vanier-Les Rivières). “Teamwork is about speaking to each other’s faces,” but when this is done in public, “it harms team spirit.”
A “distraction”, to use the expression of François Legault, there was one in the morning when the deputy for Rousseau, Louis-Charles Thouin, asked mayors to contribute to the CAQ electoral fund in exchange for a meeting with the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault. The main person concerned did not comment on the report by La Presse Canadienne.
The president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, pleaded that “no one is forced to contribute, to accept. There are rules, and we follow them.”
She leaves it up to the competent authorities to judge Mr. Thouin’s case. “There are several organizations that are responsible for monitoring. The supervision is very tight […] I will not comment on a situation of which I have not had personal knowledge,” she said. “If there are things to improve, we will. »
Sonia LeBel says she does not ask mayors to make donations to parties in exchange for a meeting. “If I talk about my personal situation, I can assure you that this is not the case. They have access to me when they need it,” argued the former prosecutor of the Charbonneau commission.
For his part, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, reiterated the request that Mr. Legault sent in writing to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to slow down the arrival of asylum seekers. This influx puts the school network under pressure, he argued.
“We have a lot of new immigrant children who need to be educated. We have reached 1,237 francization classes in Quebec, which is the equivalent of 51 primary schools. Please, Mr. Trudeau, we have reached the limit, we are indeed at the breaking point. So the open bar in immigration, stop that. Because we, in education, have a shortage of teachers, a lack of premises. » A “large proportion” of French classes are made up of asylum seekers, according to him.
At the Montreal school service center, he added, “the equivalent of three primary schools” have been opened since September and “there are more than 400 registrations waiting, students who must be placed in our schools.”
With Fanny Lévesque, The Press