Letter to Martine Biron | The Press

Hello, Madam Minister, at the end of the pandemic, you have highlighted the diplomatic “effervescence” that accompanies the reopening of diplomatic relations around the world. You also expressed a firm desire that Quebec be part of this effervescence. I’m quite happy with that, but I have a few ideas to share with you.

Let’s start with an anecdote.

In January 2018, along with six other mayors from across Canada, I was invited to Washington to advocate for NAFTA, now called the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement^⁠1. We were invited to meet with mayors of American municipalities with whom we had economic ties to highlight the consequences of the abolition of NAFTA for our cities and theirs. We were told that President Trump was more sensitive to articles in local American newspapers than to the advice of leading experts. According to our hosts, we had been helpful.

Another little memory.

Digging through my old mayor diaries, we see that, only between January and March 2020 (the pandemic stopped everything), I met the Taiwanese ambassador to discuss possible partnerships with our cybersecurity innovation zone. . The French consulate to talk about culture and (again) cybersecurity. The Ambassador of Mexico to discuss in particular the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), whose only institutional presence in Canada is in Gatineau. Incidentally, UNAM is one of the largest universities in the Americas, it has as many students as Gatineau has citizens: 300,000. And finally, during the same period, I met the Mongolian ambassador who wanted to explore the possibility of establishing links with the University of Quebec in Outaouais.

Gatineau’s presence on the borders of the capital gives it a strategic capacity for action that is little known in your ministry and it is not the only one.

Everywhere in Quebec, and not just in the largest cities, municipalities have developed a certain international expertise. Here are some examples.

Thanks to its center of excellence on drones, the city of Alma (and former mayor Marc Asselin) has one of the best networks of contacts in North America in the field of drones.

Drummondville has been recruiting labor abroad for decades, it has developed significant expertise in the field.

Shawinigan and its mayor, a fan of the social economy, have an impressive network abroad in this area.

Gatineau is part of a global network of expertise on living together and its police have trained in Haiti.

Cities are also wise enough to carry out missions abroad from time to time to draw inspiration from what is best done elsewhere.

Of course, there is our capital and our metropolis whose international activities are well established. Moreover, if Quebec was the first province in Canada to maintain privileged relations with the Chinese central government, it is thanks in particular to the links established between Montreal and Shanghai at the time of the Chinese “open cities”.^⁠2.

Conclusion of all this? For Québec’s international action to be stronger, cities must absolutely be privileged partners of the Québec government: they already have expertise.

Imagine if all the mayors conveyed, in meetings here and abroad, the same messages as the Government of Quebec regarding our strategic interests. Our strike force would be multiplied.

And here I am only talking about elected officials, civil servants accompany them in meetings here and abroad. Imagine if they were trained by your ministry. We don’t do any of that right now. Worse still, the Institut de la diplomatie du Québec trains your employees, but it still cannot admit elected officials and municipal officials to its training.

Cities have voices, but they also have expertise that we could place at the service of our partners abroad. In their fields of jurisdiction, the cities of Quebec compare favorably with those of many countries. Countries like the Netherlands also use their municipal experts as consultants to support developing countries. The municipal potential to contribute to Québec’s international influence is considerable… and almost totally untapped.

I would end by saying that the trip to Washington in 2018 was organized by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). In fact, most of the municipal actions of Quebec cities are carried out according to the priorities of the FCM and of Canada.

I would therefore like to remind you of the Gérin-Lajoie doctrine, a doctrine which affirms that Quebec can, if it wishes, act directly on the international scene in the area that falls within its jurisdiction. It is time for Quebec to remember that municipal affairs are its responsibility and that it can use the extraordinary potential of cities to help it shine around the world. Canada has understood this.

Thank you for taking the time to read me, and good thoughts.