The prime minister amended the social charter of the 1960s, when a welfare state was incorporated into it based on the principle of equity, particularly in support for the studies of young people or in the remuneration of civil servants.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
François Legault embarks on the active life after training in accounting. He subsequently became CEO of Air Transat, which he left for politics in 1997 in the Parti Québécois government. He is in charge of some ministries. After a purgatory in the opposition, he resigned from the government in 2009 to return to it in 2012 under the banner of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ). He hit the jackpot in 2018, when he became prime minister. The man knows business and politics. Better than anyone, he knows how to build a potential of sympathy that a divided opposition fails to bring down.
François Legault infers a provincialist nationalism like Maurice Duplessis, who was Premier of Quebec for 18 years, notably from 1944 to 1959. Duplessis, in his popular assemblies, gave 10 cent coins to children.
Francois Legault, 70 years later, hands out $500 “tickets” to Quebec families. Like Maurice Duplessis, François Legault sports, in the eyes of many, the image of a savior in the face of popular misery, in a Quebec that is going from bad to worse.
The barrack in question here is the social charter launched by the government of Jean Lesage in the 1960s.
It includes a welfare state based on the principle of equity, particularly in support of young people’s studies or in the remuneration of civil servants. Thus, until the Legault government, whatever the school disciplines, each student was entitled to the same level of scholarship support. In addition, the salaries paid to civil servants were derived from a plan for assessing the value of the jobs considered in relation to each other.
The old principles no longer hold
The pandemic has increased workloads, especially in health. It has accentuated the shortage of jobs. François Legault has chosen to intervene according to a principle of market economy. His intervention changed the previous equity in wages and support for education based on equal opportunity for all.
More than 70,000 nurses were already ringing the gong. They received a salary enhancement ranging between $15,000 and $18,000 per year. Admittedly, nurses rightly believe they deserve it, but they are not alone in the public service. For example, the shortage of teachers in school boards is also extremely serious.
François Legault’s initiative for nurses upset the traditional balance of jobs considered in relation to each other. But more than anything, it inflated the expectations regime of the 430,000 forgotten civil servants.
They probably assess that what was valid for the nurses must also be valid for them. As for inflation, it mobilizes everyone towards the protection of purchasing power in a Quebec that risks collective impoverishment.
From now on, Quebecers are no longer treated equally with regard to their choice of studies. The student who evolves in a field said to be in shortage receives financial support that is clearly superior to other disciplines. Scholarships are awarded, after each full-time semester, in the study programs concerned. At the college level, a sum of $1,500 is paid each semester, for a total of $9,000, in a program lasting three years. At the university level, a sum of $2,500 is paid each semester, for a total of $15,000 in a three-year program and $20,000 in a four-year program.
Quebecers who are not studying in the chosen disciplines are excluded. Basically, anything can be bought. But is it fair?
Unions have two major reasons for mobilization. The first is to restore balance in the remuneration of jobs. The second is to raise wages to a level that will protect the purchasing power of their members. From this arose a union common front in April 2022. The State’s annual wage enhancement policy equivalent to 2% would not be sufficient in the face of an inflationary gap of 6%.
Meanwhile, baby boomers, now retired, risk aging without adequate services given the scarcity of labour. A big clash between the unions and François Legault is on the horizon in the form of massive general strikes in a public service already close to implosion. In terms of values, Quebecers have never been so divided between young and old, between poor and rich. Putting Quebec back on track post-pandemic with trusting labor relations, and a peaceful active force, is certainly the next mountain that François Legault will have to climb.