The delays accumulated this week due to cases of COVID-19 in the National Assembly will not stiffen parliamentary work more than necessary, assures the parliamentary leader of the government, Simon Jolin-Barrette. Gags are “not at all” contemplated on the bills under consideration, he said Wednesday.
The Minister of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) wanted to reassure the opposition groups, who expressed fears in the morning about the smooth running of the parliamentary process, about two months before the end of the session.
“Not at all, not at all,” he said in English when asked about his intentions to use the exceptional procedure to speed up the adoption of some of the twenty government bills under consideration. . “Of course, we have to adjust”, he agreed, but the National Assembly did not deconfine “too quickly”.
As of Wednesday, eight elected officials, including Prime Minister François Legault, were forced to absent themselves from the corridors of parliament. Six of them are CAQ deputies. After Transport Minister François Bonnardel and backbenchers Stéphanie Lachance, Lise Lavallée and Sébastien Schneeberger, Deputy Prime Minister Geneviève Guilbault also contracted the virus.
“Last Sunday my daughter tested positive for COVID-19,” she tweeted on Wednesday. I have cared for her since, and had symptoms on Monday, confirmed by a positive test yesterday. I will therefore remain isolated until Saturday, in accordance with the instructions of Public Health. »
Between the spring of 2020 and the fall of 2021, the government gave itself the directive never to send the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister to the same event. Mr. Legault and Ms. Guilbault alternated in the Blue Room for question period until last September.
Since mid-March, the deputies in the Chamber have been all the more numerous. Due to an agreement reached between the parliamentary groups and the elected independents, Parliament can sit at full capacity.
“We are not an island”
But here we are, the accumulation of cases of COVID-19 between the walls of the National Assembly endangers the adoption of priority legislative measures, said Wednesday the leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Dominique Anglade.
“We are not an island in the National Assembly, eh. We are like the general population. We are touched by that, she observed in the press scrum. [Ça] reinforces the need to have a government that is on its business, because there are plenty of bills, little time left in the session. »
“They will have to prioritize […] Consequently. »
In terms of health and social services alone, elected officials are analyzing four government bills, including the reform of the Department of Youth Protection and a measure on access to medical data. PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon criticizes the CAQ for having procrastinated.
“It’s like when you’re at school, you have an exam and you start studying the day before, he illustrated. That you don’t sleep, that you drink coffee all night […] and you say to yourself: “Oh! I really have to pass this exam.” »
Faced with the rise in cases, which notably affected her fellow MP Émilise Lessard-Therrien, solidarity co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois invites Public Health to decide on alternative parliamentary procedures if it believes it necessary.
– With Alexandre Robillard