After a series of missteps, the government is forced to postpone until January the study of Bill 31 on housing, which Minister France-Élaine Duranceau failed to have adopted this fall.
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“Study of the bill will resume in January,” confirmed the office of the Minister responsible for Housing in a message to the QMI Agency on Friday morning.
However, this new delay risks leading to serious consequences, according to Minister Duranceau herself, who wants to place the blame on the opposition parties.
“If we do not adopt today, that means that in January, we have tenants who will suffer evictions and who will be poorly protected,” she warned in the corridors of parliament before enter the question period. “So, I hope that the oppositions are not playing politics on the backs of the tenants.”
Over the past few months, work on Bill 31 has been anything but smooth sailing. Since the tabling of the legislative document in the final hours of the parliamentary session last June, France-Élaine Duranceau aimed for its adoption this fall.
Then, in October, the study of the bill had to be interrupted, because the minister had to have a series of amendments approved by the Council of Ministers, attracting salvos from the opposition parties who accused of “not having done his homework”.
The work resumed the following week in parliamentary committee, but the refusal of Mme Duranceau to unveil all of his amendments at once caused a commotion in the parliamentary committee, leading the opposition deputies to leave the room to denounce the government’s method.
Once in the home stretch of the parliamentary session, the government chose to complete the study of Bill 39 on municipal taxation, a “disavowal of the minister and her bill,” according to PQ MP Joël Arseneau.
Québec solidaire then proposed to the government to make two concessions to save Bill 31 before the holiday break, and parliamentarians resumed the detailed study, but it was already too late. “It’s the fault of the government and its chaotic management of the parliamentary calendar,” said liberal MP Monsef Derraji on the telephone.
“Despite the fact that we diluted the opposition’s proposals, it was not enough for them, and we were unable to reach an agreement to pass Bill 31 before today. », Explained Minister Duranceau’s office.
“We reached out to the CAQ with two compromises to save the furniture, they refused. We will continue to fight when we return in January to improve this bill,” responded Québec solidaire in a written statement.