Are you aware? The state of Quebec-Canada relations is not in good shape. “In recent decades, the federal government has often acted unilaterally, sometimes to impose its wishes in areas of provincial jurisdiction, sometimes to reduce its funding to the provinces,” an official document tells us.
That’s true. Just in recent years, Ottawa has refused to restore its historic health funding, which limits the ability of the provinces to adequately meet their needs. But on the other hand, Ottawa has created its own health programs from scratch. He decided to use his superpower, called “spending power,” to make insulin free for diabetics, contraception for women and dental care for seniors and the poor.
So many good ideas, except for two micro-flats. First, if Quebec and the other provinces have not until now thought it useful to develop these programs, it is because they have other priorities. For example: reducing the number of hours seniors spend on stretchers before being treated. Reading a somewhat outdated document called the Constitution, we thought that these heartbreaking choices about which services to cover or not were up to the provinces, not the federal government.
The second downside is the following. One of the reasons why Quebec does not reimburse all dental care and medications is that it does not have the income necessary to pay all these bills. If Ottawa decides to compensate for this shortfall, it’s because it has the money, do you think? Not even. The federal government is as, if not more, in debt than the provinces. So he decides to be generous with us, but from our collective credit card.
We know the drill: Ottawa decides to come and interfere in our affairs, but since we are the service providers, we still have to sign an agreement. It’s like that in housing, infrastructure, and everything else.
The beauty of the dental care program concocted by Ottawa is that it does not need an agreement with Quebec to apply. Via a private insurance company which obtained the federal contract, Ottawa directly reimburses private dentists affiliated with the program. Quebec seniors, understandably attracted by the prospect of low-cost dental care, have knocked on the doors of dentists who work in our public establishments, for example CHSLDs and community clinics. But since the latter are employed by the Quebec state, they were instructed not to get involved in this scheme. Scandal!
A man who cares a lot about the dental condition of seniors, the member for Rosemont in the Commons, the neo-democrat Alexandre Boulerice, raised his voice: “It takes a lot gang heartless to be able to punish people, to hurt people like that, who otherwise would have the right to have access to the dentist! » I decode: the villain gang of heartless are, in this case, the members of the Coalition Avenir Québec government. Vlan: in the teeth!
The heartless-in-chief in this affair, Christian Dubé, Minister of Health, reacted immediately. He gave in. And gave state-employed dentists immediate orders to comply with the wishes of Mr. Boulerice, also deputy leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Yes, because it was his party that imposed on Ottawa the cool idea of interfering in provincial health jurisdiction. Informed during the process that health was under Quebec jurisdiction, its leader, Jagmeet Singh, did not go there with the back of the strawberry: “Are the elders talking about areas of jurisdiction or are they say: “I want to treat my teeth, it costs too much and I can’t”? » He added, bitingly: “In this specific case, [le gouvernement Legault et Québec solidaire] are not linked to the reality of the population of Quebec. » The NDP is. In any case, that’s what his Quebec caucus unanimously told him. They are one.
Boulerice also called on Trudeau to “call Quebec to order”. He meant “on orders”, therefore on the orders of the federal sovereign. The one who knows, the one who decides, the one who gives orders. “Province”, basically, means “vanquished”.
I come back to the document that I cited to you at the beginning of this column. I found it on MP Boulerice’s website. It reads, among other things, this: “An agreement that does not obtain the consent of Quebec is not an agreement at all: it is a disagreement. »
We also read: “Quebec simply needs assurances that the federal government will respect the processes and policies [pris] by Quebec. » Here’s an idea, it’s a good one! Again: “It is clear that guarantees given to Quebec regarding asymmetry and respect for provincial jurisdictions could considerably contribute to promoting greater cooperation. » So much wisdom! “Formal recognition and respect for Quebec could help reduce mistrust. » We couldn’t say it better.
These quotes come from a bygone world. The one where the NDP, in a brief moment of lucidity in 2005, by adopting this Sherbrooke Declaration, deemed it appropriate to respect the Quebec difference and, more fundamentally, the principle of division of powers inherent in any self-respecting federation. This is a constant in Canadian politics: the only true federalists are Quebecers. Without them, the country would have been unitary. Respect for federalism is therefore consubstantial with respect for the Quebec difference.
The NDP and its former federal Liberal ally don’t give a damn about federalism and the Quebec difference. Jagmeet Singh poses as a champion of tears. By proposing federal policies that he wishes to impose on Quebec, insults to boot, he tore up the Sherbrooke Declaration. He then tore up the agreement between him and Justin Trudeau, without even informing him by telephone that he was going to do so.
The Declaration was nevertheless true. Disrespect for Quebec causes disagreement. And fuels distrust. When Quebec is finally sovereign, we will be able, in a future independence museum, to display in a hall of the great tear the portrait of those who pushed us towards the exit. We will see in good place that of Jagmeet Singh with, in mortise, the profile of the last specimen of Neodemocratinus quebecensusAlexandre Boulerice.