Resumption of work at the National Assembly | Renovations in progress, reform pending

(Quebec) It is not a session like the others which opens this Tuesday at the National Assembly.

This is the first time since coming to power in 2018 that the Legault government has started a parliamentary period by lagging behind in the polls.

The fall was brutal last fall: his voting intentions fell from 37% to 25%. It’s even worse at the start of the year: the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) slips to 21%, according to a survey by the firm Pallas Data. At 32%, the Parti Québécois enters majority territory.

The next general elections are still far away – October 5, 2026 – but the question remains important: will the CAQ rebound or sink? The answer will determine what happens next, such as the announcement of a cabinet reshuffle after the session.

Renovations begin

Another special context of this session: the deputies will debate in the Blue Room as we know it for the last time.

The National Assembly Hall will undergo a makeover from the end of the session. Restoration work is considered “priority in order to preserve the state of the premises on all levels” and to modernize the equipment. These are the first major renovations since the end of the 1970s: the “Green Room” was turned blue with the implementation of televised debates.

How much does this makeover cost? We don’t know for the moment, even if the project has received the green light!

“Budget estimates are being prepared and will be presented to the Office of the National Assembly when authorization of the work is requested,” we simply respond. This Office is the board of directors of Parliament; it is made up of elected officials from all parties.

We still found two contracts awarded so far for services in architecture ($700,156) and electrical engineering ($119,400) related to the renovation of the Salon bleu. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Work is starting now on the Salon rouge, neighboring the Salon bleu and of similar size. The 125 deputies will take their place there from the fall of 2024 “for a minimum period of approximately two years”, the time to renovate the Blue Room, according to the National Assembly.

What is the estimated cost of this work? A contract worth nearly $3 million was concluded to redevelop the Salon rouge, and others, totaling more than $500,000, for the purchase of equipment. For the rest, “it is not possible to reveal the budget granted […] so as not to harm public tender processes and the execution of current contracts.”

The Salon rouge will therefore no longer host a parliamentary committee between now and the next general elections. The CAQ caucus, which used to meet there every session day, will hold its meetings behind closed doors elsewhere. It will be at the Le Parlementaire restaurant on Wednesday and Thursday morning, while the Tuesday meeting will take place by videoconference. One less opportunity for journalists to question MPs and ministers.

And the content?

We renovate the container, but what about the contents?

We have forgotten it, but the day after his re-election, Prime Minister François Legault announced his “intention to work on parliamentary reform to improve the role of each of the 125 deputies”. This was his response to those who criticized him for his refusal to reform the voting system to add elements of proportionality – a broken promise from 2018.

The election results had relaunched the debate… which has since disappeared from the radar screen. The CAQ obtained 72% of the seats with 41% of the votes and the Conservative Party had none despite 13% of the votes, for example.

In interview with The Press in November 2022, the government’s parliamentary leader, Simon Jolin-Barrette, assured that the Prime Minister’s intention was serious. “We need to modernize all of this,” he pleaded. “Citizens also have a lot to gain from it. It’s important, it’s their democracy. »

On the first day of taking office, the President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, maintained that “the fruit is ripe” for such parliamentary reform, in order to “evolve our way of working, of governing ourselves as ‘elected’. She promised to be a “facilitator” to “move forward” with such a project.

“We also want to change the functioning of our National Assembly,” François Legault replied. It’s 2022, we’re due for a good parliamentary reform. »

It’s 2024, and the file hasn’t made much progress so far. Certainly, the deputies abolished the obligation to swear an oath to the king to sit in the National Assembly. And on Tuesday, for a rare time, they will hold consultations in connection with a bill tabled by the official opposition, on the subject of organ donation. In Simon Jolin-Barrette’s office, it is argued that electronic voting at the Salon bleu has been implemented, that the work schedule has been rearranged to facilitate work-family balance, and that a daycare center has emerged. However, no in-depth review of the ways of doing things in the National Assembly has been launched since the start of the second term. The last parliamentary reform dates back to 2009.

“A subcommittee on parliamentary reform” was created, but it never sat. And no work session is planned to date.

President Nathalie Roy reported to The Press that such a reform is “an exercise which must reflect a collective wish”. The start of discussions on the subject depends “on the will that will be expressed” by each party.

Simon Jolin-Barrette’s office maintains that “discussions are continuing continuously with the oppositions in order to ensure the proper functioning of the work”. There are “no new announcements to be made in relation to parliamentary reform at the moment”.

Broken promise

Before the 2018 elections, the CAQ had promised parliamentary reform to, for example, establish a free voting mechanism, a way of softening the party line. Or, make it obligatory to study a predetermined number of bills tabled by opposition parties. She even wanted to make it possible to recall a deputy through a petition deemed compliant by the Chief Electoral Officer and which would receive an absolute majority of voters in the constituency.

This commitment never materialized. During his first mandate, François Legault suggested at most making Parliament “more efficient, without taking away powers and rights from the oppositions”.

The Prime Minister mainly mentioned the idea of ​​limiting the duration of study of bills in parliamentary committee and allowing ministers to no longer participate…

A parliamentary subcommittee was also created at the time. But she had never sat. The government had presented a set of proposals: it suggested, among other things, a new Chamber of Citizen Affairs and the creation of a position of parliamentary budget director like in Ottawa – a long-standing demand of the CAQ. Each opposition party had made its suggestions. Everyone had their opinion on rewatching the famous question period, for example. There is a basis on which MPs could begin to work.

In the fall of 2026, when elected officials return to the Blue Room, according to the schedule, the desks will be arranged in a different shape, in a horseshoe. As for parliamentary reform, will it fizzle out?