Voices are being raised to denounce the virtual absence of commitments in education since the start of the election campaign. The leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) denies giving it little space and promises to come back to this issue after the first debate.
The first days of the PQ tour were dedicated to independence, the French language and the environment.
“These are the three subjects where, I find, there are the most distinctions between the CAQ as a government over the past four years, and what we are proposing,” said Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, Monday morning in point press, to explain the absence of the theme of education in the first week of the party’s campaign.
The leader of the PQ was visiting a dairy farm in Sainte-Gertrude-Manneville, more than 80 km north of Rouyn-Noranda, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, for an announcement on agriculture.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon presented a first commitment in education, at the end of the second week of the campaign, last Friday. He pledged to increase investments by $575 million a year for the renovation of dilapidated schools and to speed up the work.
On the same day, representatives of school administrators and parents made a public outing to denounce the lack of importance given to education by political parties in the context of the current election campaign.
However, the problems are numerous, they said: shortages in several categories of staff, lack of an overall vision, piecemeal announcements, delays in school renovations.
The candidate in Camille-Laurin assured that the theme of education will again be addressed by his political party, following the Face to face scheduled for Thursday on TVA.
“On education, we have a position in favor of the public. A bit like on agriculture, there will be similarities between what the parties are proposing and there will be nuances on the place of the private sector, the public sector, the budgets that we will grant. We will come back to it. We cannot say that in our campaign plan there is little space for education,” he said.
Quebec meals in schools and hospitals
The PQ leader presented a second time, Monday, the outline of his commitments in agriculture. These had been mentioned to members of the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) last week.
The sovereigntist formation is committed in particular to reforming the Law on the protection of agricultural land in order to prevent, as much as possible, dezoning and to limit the area that a non-farmer could hold.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon also mentioned that a PQ government would impose “severe” penalties on speculators who do not exploit the land.
“It will be proportional to the astronomical profits that are made on the backs of our farmers, and it will be enough to discourage this behavior,” he said.
In order to promote local purchasing, the PQ wants a minimum of 70% of all food served in public and parapublic organizations, such as hospitals and schools, to be the product of Quebec agriculture.
This measure is also part of an environmental objective to encourage a local circular economy in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, indicated Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
The PQ leader also wants to develop mental health support programs with the UPA.
“The difficulty is being on your own with huge responsibilities and when the farm has challenges, but when you’re on your own learning all the pressure and working colossal hours, that’s when it can become complicated,” he said.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon also mentioned the idea of implementing financial assistance programs and tax incentives to encourage succession and the transfer of farms from one generation to the next.
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This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchanges and The Canadian Press for the news.