(Quebec) While Québec solidaire (QS) is delighted that the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is calling for its bill 198 which would expand the scope of the Françoise David law in order to better protect seniors from evictions, the leader of the government, Simon Jolin-Barrette, suggested that his party had little appetite to pass it.
In a press scrum at the National Assembly on Tuesday, Mr. Jolin-Barrette indicated that the debate on the protection of elderly tenants had already been done within the framework of Bill 31 on housing and that the government’s position had not changed.
During the study of Bill 31, QS and the Parti Québécois (PQ) tabled amendments to improve the Françoise David law. The Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, refused them, arguing that her bill already contained several measures to protect people from evictions, regardless of their age. The legislative piece was adopted last February.
“Even though we already had the debate with Bill 31, QS wants to have the debate again. […] As a leader, I am open to having this debate with them again,” said Simon Jolin-Barrette
“I can never guarantee from the moment a bill is tabled, that it will be adopted by the National Assembly. Especially since it is an opposition bill and it is exceptional that we are pushing forward an opposition bill,” he added.
Questioned on the subject in the corridors of the National Assembly, Minister Duranceau simply stated: “we are going to debate it in the chamber”.
Gag and negotiation
Last Friday, solidarity leader Alexandre Leduc did not speak about the reasons why the government chose to call Bill 198, evoking in particular the hypotheses of bad polls for the CAQ or the housing crisis.
However, on Wednesday, Simon Jolin-Barrette revealed that an agreement had been reached between him and Alexandre Leduc concerning the solidarity bill.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Solidarity leader Alexandre Leduc
A few hours after the government leader’s revelations, Alexandre Leduc appeared before journalists to admit that there had indeed been an agreement between him and his CAQ counterpart: QS undertook to ensure that the adoption by gag order of Bill 15 on the health system be accelerated and in exchange, the government was going to call Bill 198, he explained.
Asked why he had not indicated this information earlier, Mr. Leduc replied: “I do not want to put in public the entirety of the discussions that I have with my opposite number. , Simon Jolin-Barrette. It’s not very elegant of him to have done it. […] I don’t find it up to the task. »
The solidarity leader said he hoped to convince his CAQ opponents to adopt his bill. The Liberals and the PQ have already spoken out in favor.
The law commonly known as the “Françoise David law”, which was adopted in 2016, stipulates that a senior over 70 with a very low income who has lived in their home for more than 10 years cannot be evicted. The objective of the new solidarity bill is to broaden the criteria in order to include in particular people aged 65 and over who have lived in their home for at least five years.