Christian Dubé wants to quickly end his reform of the health network because he is “tired”, according to the Parti Québécois.
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“It’s exhausting to be at the head of the health network with the problems we are experiencing and with the collapse that has been happening before our eyes for three years. Then he was there during the pandemic…I guess he’s tired. He worked hard last fall, so obviously he wants to get out of committee,” said PQ MP Joël Arseneau at a press conference in parliament on Thursday morning.
“I think that these are personal reasons which can be defended, but it is not the reason of State,” continued Mr. Arseneau. The reason of state is to adopt the best possible project.”
PQ MP Joël Arseneau
Archive photo
The Legault government proposed on Wednesday to sit in a parliamentary committee for three days next week in order to continue the study of Bill 15, then to proceed with its adoption on Thursday, an offer rejected by the PQ and accepted without enthusiasm by the Liberals and solidarity, who are asking for more time to examine this imposing legislative text.
“There remains all the prehospital […] and penal provisions,” observed the member for Québec solidaire, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, to underline the extent of the work that remains to be done.
Faced with these fears, the government offered on Thursday to add an additional day to the study of the bill, again in exchange for a guarantee that it will be adopted at the end of next week.
“It’s political marketing on the part of the government which says: ‘I want to impose a gag order on the opposition, but I want them to consent.’ We refuse to play in this kind of stupid trap that the government has set for us,” complained Joël Arseneau.
If the government carries out its threat, the refusal of the PQ to take its outstretched hand risks leading to an even more rapid adoption of Bill 15, which would be clumsy, according to Guillaume Cliche-Rivard.
“After opening the door so wide for us to work, I think there is a direct admission from the government to the effect that we need more days and more work,” he said. he said Thursday afternoon.
But the intransigence of the PQ has also revealed tensions among the opposition parties, while the Liberals accuse them of throwing sand in the gear.
“Why stop us from working?” said the interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay.
This comment was not to the taste of Joël Arseneau, who replied that he must divide his time between the study of three bills on two different committees. He also says he does not understand the Liberals’ position.
“It’s a legislative straitjacket that the government wants to impose on us, then the Liberals ask for more!” he said in an indignant tone.
Meanwhile, the other important reform that the government was working on this fall, that of Minister Bernard Drainville in education, was adopted without difficulty.