If François Legault has a strong mandate, it is not thanks to young people. Barely a fifth of them supported him before the election campaign.
His inaugural speech shows the path that remains to be covered in two files that will affect them: the environment and French. Issues where Mr. Legault has disappointed or has not yet convinced.
For any government, the economy and health are the big pieces. But with the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ), there is no mystery. In health, Minister Christian Dubé has already tabled his vast reform project. And in economics, Eric Girard is busy implementing electoral commitments, one check at a time.
The labor shortage complicates the work of the entire state, particularly in education. But again, the solution is known.
Working conditions should be improved and, where possible, workers trained, requalified or repatriated.
If we are looking for an element of novelty in this discourse, a foretaste of the perils to come, it lies elsewhere.
After his election in 2018, Mr. Legault recognized that the environment was in his blind spot. Four years later, he only half sees it.
The current plan only achieves half of the promised reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Legault often reduces the subject to an economic opportunity for green growth.
However, the economy and the environment do not always go together. Sometimes you have to choose. And some issues, such as biodiversity, do not enrich us if we think only of numbers.
The network of protected areas will be extended and a Blue Water Fund will be created, announced Mr. Legault. The Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park should also soon be expanded. But elsewhere, progress has been modest.
Since the beginning of the CAQ reign in 2018, the committee which designates threatened or vulnerable species has not met once. On the eve of COP15, this is not a pretty business card.
Mr. Legault mentioned “energy efficiency and sobriety”. With an apprehended deficit of at least 100 terawatt hours, it is necessary. It remains to be seen how it will get there.
Another source of concern: the fund that feeds the work in road transport and public transport is now in deficit, and the hole will widen. The Prime Minister does not dare reinforce the polluter pays principle for cars.
He boasted, however, that he had reached a “certain consensus” with the third link – on the other side of the Blue Room, the oppositions laughed.
Without denying his target for 2030, Mr. Legault insists on carbon neutrality in 2050. It is both a necessity and a trap. This long-term schedule encourages us to take small steps, hoping that technological innovations will save us. However, climatologists are clear: the carbon sent into the atmosphere today will remain there for a long time, and in 2050, some damage will be irreparable.
The Prime Minister is right, Quebec is not a dunce. The rest of Canada pollutes twice as much per capita. But we are not a model either.
For lack of clarification, the green promises of the CAQ will not enthuse young people, and it is not their fault.
In French, the logic is different. Young people are not at the forefront of the battle to protect our common public language. But it is by thinking of them that Mr. Legault worries.
His “national awakening” may nevertheless be surprising. His reform of Bill 101 is not yet fully in effect – for example, Francisation Quebec will be officially created next year. And already, he recognizes that these efforts will be insufficient.
At least he seems to want to pick his fights better.
In immigration, he no longer insists so much that candidates for family reunification speak French. The effect would have been minimal for the language and dramatic for the individuals – a grandmother could not have found her family, on the pretext that at 80 she does not speak French.
Difficult, however, to know where the CAQ government is going. It is only next year that he will begin consultations to revise the immigration policy. By the end of the current mandate, almost all candidates may have to speak French to be selected. He is also thinking of increasing the number of foreign students – French-speaking or attending a French-speaking university, that remains to be seen. And finally, there are francization courses at work, which are underused.
The Canada-Quebec Agreement of 1992 is also scrutinized to verify how to require that the federal government welcome more temporary immigrants who master French.
There are many question marks that remain.
If Mr. Legault fails in his duty to protect the nation’s language, he will not forgive himself. And if he does not show himself up to the task in the environment, the young people will not forgive him either.