The Parti Québécois is ready to water down its wine, but it does not want the cup to overflow. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon waives his request to have a parliamentary leader, but he wants to obtain in exchange the “bare minimum” to ensure the survival of his party.
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The operating budget that the other parties are ready to grant to the PQ would not allow it to function properly, believes Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. Rather than $495,000, the PQ leader would like to obtain an amount of $800,000 for his operations at the National Assembly.
“It’s the bare minimum financially,” says the PQ leader in an interview. A party needs researchers, people in communication, a chief of staff, and people in the administration to do the paperwork of the Assembly and the links with civil society.
If he does not obtain this amount, the PQ “will have to make choices”, continues Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon. “There will be no one to correct mistakes before a document leaves, there will be no one to do the correspondence.”
“But we did not go there in the reflection, because if the Liberals obtained the same operating budget as in 2018 even if they lost seven deputies, we consider that if Quebec solidaire obtained $ 1 million moreover when they have only one more deputy, there is no reason for the PQ not to obtain an amount which is much less, but which is the bare minimum of operation.
The PQ also demands to be able to ask one question in the room per day. This amounts to having one question out of nine, whereas in the current state of affairs, they could only ask 5 per cycle of 100 questions.
Place at BAN
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s party is ready to drop its demand for a parliamentary leader. But in exchange, he hopes to have a place in the office of the National Assembly (BAN).
“This is where the parties agree and express themselves on the functioning of the National Assembly, said the PQ leader. We know that the CAQ wants to carry out parliamentary reform. The minimum is to include us in the forum.
Why would the other parties comply with the demands of the PQ? To this question, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon replies that his demands are “reasonable”, and that public opinion is on his side.
“If they don’t give us our demands, the intention is that we don’t exist in the National Assembly, and to prevent us from functioning and speaking out. We don’t think the people of Quebec agree with that.”
Public place
Accused by his opponents of negotiating in the public square, the PQ leader replies that it was the CAQ that started.
“It was Simon Jolin-Barette who brought the negotiation into the public square on Tuesday evening by making a declaration that he was giving me the status of recognized leader,” he asks.
“You can’t complain about your own behavior. It’s important that people have the full picture. They want to recognize me as the leader of a party that is not recognized”.
OPERATING BUDGET THAT WOULD BE GRANTED TO OPPOSITION PARTIES
PQ: $732,000 (3 deputies)
$244,000 per MP
5 questions out of 100 at the Blue Room
QS: $2,687,000 (11 deputies)
$244,272 per MP
25 questions out of 100 at the Blue Room
PLQ: $5,130,000 (19 deputies)
$270,000 per MP
70 out of 100 questions at the Blue Room