JERBA | François Legault took advantage of his platform in front of all the heads of state of the Francophonie gathered in Tunisia to assert his law 96 on the French language. In private with Justin Trudeau, he “set the table” on his demands for a next one-on-one, scheduled for December.
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During a plenary “in front of all the Heads of State” present at the 18th Francophonie Summit, the Premier of Quebec expressed concern about the decline of French in Montreal.
“We have seen for a number of years a reduction in the percentage of Quebecers who speak French (from 54 to 48% in 20 years). […] It’s worrying and then we took action: I talked about Bill 96, ”said Mr. Legault.
On the sidelines of the summit on Saturday, he also took advantage of a bilateral meeting with Justin Trudeau to “defend” his reform of Law 101.
“I reminded Mr. Trudeau of the importance of Bill 96. Among other things, to ensure that federally chartered companies, like Air Canada, like the Bank of Montreal, although Bill 101 applies to these large companies in the same way as it applies to companies such as Bombardier or CN,” said Mr. Legault.
Opening
The situation at Roxham Road and health transfers were among the other topics discussed. “I think I have set the table well,” summed up Mr. Trudeau, who spoke with his federal counterpart for about twenty minutes.
In one or other of the cases, François Legault seems to be still far from being able to claim victory, even if he says he felt a certain “openness, in words”, without revealing more.
“I don’t want either, I want to be very clear with you, to have a Quebec-Ottawa chicane abroad. So we are going to keep local affairs, locally, ”limited himself to saying Mr. Legault.
Inflation
It was their first face-to-face meeting since the October 3 Quebec election.
In front of the cameras and the journalists, only a very limited number of whom were able to capture images of the first minutes of their exchanges, Justin Trudeau insisted on the importance of promoting “French in the world”.
They also “discussed inflation, a global challenge that affects all Quebecers and Canadians. They agreed that they will continue to work together to make life more affordable for Quebecers and Canadians,” Prime Minister Trudeau’s office reported.
In this regard, Mr. Legault took the opportunity to defend his promised tax cuts to Quebecers by reminding Mr. Trudeau that Quebec is “one of the places in North America where taxes are the highest”.
“We had good discussions, we promised each other […] to meet again next month, in December” to go into more detail on the various issues discussed.