(Saint-François-de-l’Île-d’Orléans) Après avoir décroché le mandat fort qu’il voulait, François Legault passe à la deuxième étape de son plan : tendre la main à l’opposition et mobiliser les Québécois afin de faire « mousser » sa demande à Ottawa pour obtenir plus de pouvoirs en matière d’immigration et « arrêter le déclin du français ».
Publié à 16h50
François Legault a choisi de tenir sa première conférence de presse après sa réélection sur la terre de Félix Leclerc, l’Île-d’Orléans. « Vous allez excuser ma voix, on a fêté un peu (lundi) soir », a-t-il dit d’entrée de jeu à la Seigneurie de l’Île-d’Orléans.
Reprenant son intention de représenter et rassembler tous les Québécois, le premier ministre s’est dit prêt à entendre les « suggestions » des partis d’opposition dans différents domaines, y compris celles du Parti conservateur du Québec au sujet de l’amélioration de l’efficacité de l’État. Il écarte toutefois l’idée d’ouvrir les portes du parlement au chef conservateur Éric Duhaime pour lui permettre de tenir des points de presse alors que son parti n’a aucun élu. Il se dit ouvert à reconnaître le Parti québécois comme groupe parlementaire reconnu à l’Assemblée nationale même s’il ne compte que trois députés, dont le chef Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
Mais il est hors de question pour François Legault, comme il l’avait dit en campagne électorale, de rouvrir le débat sur une réforme du mode de scrutin, malgré les distorsions dans les résultats électoraux. « Je vais respecter mon engagement », a-t-il martelé. « Aucun mode de scrutin n’est parfait. […] We had 41% of the vote and our closest opponent had 15%. You have to keep that in mind. In 2018, he promised reform, but broke his commitment after a bill was introduced.
It opens the door to parliamentary reform – an issue that fell into oblivion during the first mandate. Its goal is to “enhance the role” of all MPs. Those of the opposition like those of the government. He has the challenge of forming a council of ministers with 90 deputies – he did not give a date for the announcement nor for his opening speech for the parliamentary session.
The CAQ tidal wave has not reached Montreal, where the CAQ still has only two deputies. “The Prime Minister lives in Montreal, I come from Montreal, I know and I love Montreal,” insisted François Legault, saying he had good relations with Mayor Valérie Plante and underlining the strong CAQ representation in the metropolitan community. “I feel that I can personally contribute to bringing our government closer to Montreal. I don’t know if it will be formal or informal, but it will be certain that I will get involved. »
As promised, his first bill will cap government tariff increases at 3% or inflation if lower. Checks for $400 to $600 will be sent in December to help Quebecers earning less than $100,000 a year cope with the exceptional rise in the cost of living.
As of Monday evening, the Quebec Prime Minister had a meeting with his federal counterpart Justin Trudeau during which the two men went a little further than the usual congratulations and thanks. He told him, without going into details, of his “priority” in relations with Ottawa: he did not speak of an increase in health transfers, but of the need to better protect the French language. For Mr. Legault, this requires control by Quebec of the selection of newcomers from family reunification programs and temporary foreign workers, a prerogative belonging to the federal government at the moment.
“I said to Mr. Trudeau, we must stop the decline of French in Quebec. How we do it, we’ll sit down and discuss it. It was not the occasion to have a long discussion on the how. But I hope to be able, and there was an openness, for us to meet and talk about it. No date has been set.
Its strong mandate, “it helps” to win your case. But “we still have work to do to ensure that not only (the request) is supported by a majority of Quebecers, but that it becomes a real priority for all Quebecers to stop the decline of French. We are in the right direction, but there is still work to be done to convince the federal government to give more powers to select immigrants,” he explained. While recalling that “the subject is delicate”, he intends to meet, among other things, “the different cultural (Anglophone) communities and see how we can work together to protect French and make them feel good in Quebec”.
He intends to consult the opposition parties in order to define the means to mobilize Quebecers around the issue and increase the balance of power in Quebec. He does not rule out any scenario such as the holding of the Estates General or a Bélanger-Campeau style commission. During the election campaign, he did not rule out a sectoral referendum – a measure that would be highly unusual.
“There is nothing to decide at the moment. We will first discuss it with the opposition parties. But the idea, in fact, is not only to be certain that we have a majority of Quebeckers who approve of and support the efforts to stop the decline of French, but it has to become a priority, including in the next federal election. The leaders who are running in the next federal election must say: if I want the support of Quebeckers, I must be open to implementing measures to stop the decline of French. So how do we lather it up? There are several ways to do this. »
Justin Trudeau has so far refused to cede powers to Quebec in matters of immigration.