To alleviate the discontent aroused by the absence of an elected minister in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, within the Legault government, MP Pierre Dufour will be appointed parliamentary assistant responsible for the region, indicated to the To have to a government source.
As such, Mr. Dufour, elected in the riding of Abitibi-Est, will report to two ministers.
For economic development issues, he will report to the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon. For other regional issues, he will report to the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe.
Within the council of ministers, Mr. Lacombe is responsible for the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, even if he is elected in the Outaouais.
Mr. Dufour occupied this role during the previous mandate of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), in addition to being Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks. But he became a simple deputy again, during the formation of the new Council of Ministers, at the end of October.
The absence of an Abitibi elected member from the Council of Ministers had been denounced by representatives of the region, who precisely met with Prime Minister François Legault on Wednesday morning.
Leaving the meeting, the president of the Conference of Prefects of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Sébastien D’Astous, did not comment directly on the appointment of Mr. Dufour, which has not yet been officially announced.
“What we wanted is that we could have an entry, that we could understand how communications can be simple and facilitating, he said. We currently judge that what will be announced will fill a gap. »
The Abitibi-Témiscamingue region was accustomed to being able to count on a regional minister elected locally, noted Mr. D’Astous, deploring that no minister was appointed “in the short term”.
“It is sure that it is a signal which is a little negative”, he said.
In October, the CAQ however managed a perfect score by winning the three seats in the region, against two in 2018.
The fact that none of the three local elected officials has access to a ministerial function was received with disappointment.
“I wouldn’t call it anger, but we had feelings of abandonment,” D’Astous said.