Legault guarantees Dubé to Health, not Roberge to Education

(Lac-Mégantic) François Legault advances on the composition of a next council of ministers: he maintains that Christian Dubé would remain at the head of Health, while refusing to give the same guarantee to Jean-François Roberge at the Education.

Tommy Chouinard
The Press

He speaks of Éric Girard in Finance, Sonia LeBel in Treasury and Pierre Fitzgibbon in Economy as a “dream team”. He does not rule out having two ministers on the South Shore of Quebec, while he recruited Bernard Drainville and Martine Biron as candidates.

A press conference in Lac-Mégantic on a promise of 1.5 billion in sports infrastructure took a strange turn on Tuesday, when the chief caquiste wanted to address a completely different subject himself. He presented his “question from the ballot box”, the same as that chosen by the liberal leader Dominique Anglade on the day of the launch of the campaign: the economy.

“With inflation, with global economic uncertainty, with interest rates that keep rising, I think the ballot box issue is around the economy. Who is able to help Quebecers and put money back in their wallets? he said, recalling his promises of checks and tax cuts.

Then, he put forward his “economic trio” which, according to him, finds no equal in the other parties: “Éric Girard in Finance, Sonia Lebel as President of the Treasury Board and Pierre Fitzgibbon as Minister of the Economy, I think it’s a bit of a dream team “, he said. Trying to find who, in each of the other political formations, would hold these functions, “it sends shivers down the spine” according to him.

After having already said that “only” Christian Dubé can reorganize the health network, François Legault guaranteed that he would keep his job. “He’s probably the most competent, ok. I wouldn’t be too worried in Christian’s place. He also raised that “we may have a trio” at Health, as has been the case in the past four years.

And in Education? “There are plenty to choose from, there are a lot of them. There’s the team we have with Isabelle [Charest]Jean-Francois [Roberge], and more have been added. We have a lot of former principals, teachers, we have a president of a teachers’ union. We have a lot. The difficulty is to choose,” he said.

Asked whether Jean-François Roberge should be worried, he replied that “there is no one who has a guaranteed job at the CAQ”. However, he had just guaranteed a position for Christian Dubé.

“It will be from October 4 that I will look at what is the best formation, but it will not be an easy exercise,” he added.

Among his “considerations” for the formation of a council of ministers, there is gender parity, but also regional representation. He mentioned that “we cannot exclude” that the South Shore of Quebec has two ministers. Bernard Drainville and Martine Biron are its candidates in this sector.