The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, said he was “a little” reassured by the words of François Legault according to which “there is no question” of privatizing the state company Hydro-Québec.
“I have the impression that there have been enough reactions for Prime Minister Legault to say “We are going to take it slowly in this reflection”, which simply seems wise to me,” said the leader. of the Bloc Québécois, Thursday morning, after a meeting of its caucus gathered in Chicoutimi.
He specifies that it is up to the Quebec government to decide on the place that the private sector should take in electricity production, but that it will make sure to “tell Ottawa “Stay away from this debate””.
Yves-François Blanchet launched a small criticism towards the presumed intentions of the Quebec government, during his nearly half-hour speech on the sidelines of a party to mark his five years at the head of the Bloc, Tuesday evening.
“Hydro-Québec is not a business “, he chanted, arguing that the sovereignist option depended on it.
“Without this legacy of René Lévesque, the Quebec that we want to become a country could perhaps not be one. If we want to embark on this reflection [la privatisation], I invite us to do it with wisdom and intelligence. »
Out of the question, says Quebec
The next day, the Premier of Quebec addressed this very subject during his speech to his troops gathered in Sherbrooke. “By the way, there is no question of privatizing, of denying the legacy of René Lévesque, let us be very clear. »
The specter of a partial privatization of Hydro-Québec worries the union members of the state company, to the point where they launched an advertising campaign on this subject, at a time when the Coalition Avenir Québec government must table a draft law on the regulation of clean energies.
Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon reacted by denouncing “campaigns of fear and disinformation”, but added that private production was legal in certain contexts, and “will remain so”. Radio-Canada reported in January that the planned reform should notably allow the sale of electricity from one private company to another.
Pre-campaign launched
The 32 Bloc Québécois deputies gathered in downtown Chicoutimi, in Saguenay, in the heart of the riding of conservative Richard Martel, one of the few gains they hope to obtain at the end of the next elections.
The Bloc unveiled its slogan for the first parliamentary session of 2024: “Trustworthy”. The leader first mentioned immigration as an important theme for the start of the school year on Monday.
The next federal election campaign must be held no later than fall 2025.
Yves-François Blanchet spoke to his troops that he would like to never have to celebrate his ten years as leader, meaning that he hopes that a winning referendum on the independence of Quebec will render this role obsolete by there.
Questioned by The duty on his future plans, he allowed himself to dream of a role in a hypothetical yes campaign in the next five years, in the event of a takeover of power in Quebec by the sovereignist family.
“If someone says to me: ‘Come to the internship, we’re doing a referendum campaign”, we’re going to have some damn fun. I see myself well [occuper ce rôle]. » His caucus enthusiastically applauded the response.
With Marco Bélair-Cirino