Caquiste activists gave votes of confidence of more than 95% to François Legault when he was leader of the third party in the National Assembly with about twenty deputies. Now that he has 90, he has no reason to worry about his score.
Certainly not with regard to the economy which, for a government of accountants, remains the first concern. In fact, if Robert Bourassa returned to Earth, he would no doubt be flabbergasted to learn that in January of this year, Quebec had the lowest unemployment rate of all Canadian provinces and the lowest level in its history.
The wealth gap between Ontario and Quebec – measured by GDP per capita – is not closed, but it has narrowed. But Quebec now has a higher median income among 25 to 54 year olds than Ontario and British Columbia. These catch-ups had begun before the CAQ came to power, but they continued.
State finances are healthy, the debt is under control and the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, was able to backtrack on his plan to reform the pension system in time to avoid the kind of slippage that we are currently seeing in France. .
In short, Quebec has not become the country where milk and honey flow, but, in terms of the economy, things are going rather well.
Things are going a little less well for the two major state missions of health and education. So much so that the government has launched two fairly similar reforms of these two major networks.
By claiming to want to decentralize, Ministers Christian Dubé and Benrard Drainville are presiding over the greatest centralization operation that we have ever seen.
Two reforms that bear the signature of CAQ governance: eliminate checks and balances as much as possible and the possibility that a government decision may be challenged.
The problem is the same in both cases. We will have to convince citizens that an essentially administrative reform will produce results in emergency rooms and classrooms. Which is far from obvious.
Especially since the parliamentary committee studying Bill 15 is beginning to show all sorts of weaknesses or unforeseen effects of the reform. Whether it is the effect in the regions or the fact that it is a reform centered on the hospital at the expense of the other players in the network who provide local services. And of course, almost everyone notes the centralization inherent in the creation of Santé Québec.
We will see, when the Drainville reform is in parliamentary committee, if the reaction is the same, but it is obvious that these reforms will not pass so easily and that opposition from the community is already very strong.
We cannot blame the government for trying when several previous governments did not have the courage to do so. But that does not guarantee success.
But the current problems of the CAQ government come from elsewhere. Especially projects that were electoral promises that we wanted to be popular.
Let’s call them “napkins projects” because they look like they were written on a napkin or the back of an old envelope and without having done the essential checks.
The third link obviously comes first. Especially since we have proposed a new version of a tunnel reserved for public transport, still without having a precise evaluation of the costs or even of the essential issues: we still do not know where we will build it, what type of tunnel it will be , and what will be the means of transport in the tunnel.
But there are other examples that undermine the government’s credibility. Thus, the seniors’ homes came straight out of a CAQ advertising brochure for the 2018 campaign.
We have known for several months that the cost of construction has exploded. The cost of a room is now between $800,000 and over $1 million. With largely political choices: for example, there are only two planned on the island of Montreal, but there would be more than fifteen in the suburbs – hard not to see a connection with the election card!
Currently, they are often rather empty due to the shortage of staff, and some are used as temporary accommodation during the renovation of CHSLDs. As if to say: take advantage of the air conditioning and the large windows, because it won’t last!
We could also talk about 4-year-old kindergartens, postponed to Greek calendars. Or Blue Spaces, these museums announced with great fanfare in 2021 and which are no longer a priority.
Mr. Legault will earn the trust of his members. And its record – except perhaps in the environment – holds up. But what hurts him right now is not his governance, it’s the populist gimmicks and promises of his election campaigns.