During his visit to Quebec later this week, new French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will address Quebec parliamentarians and meet business people in Montreal.
The office of Prime Minister François Legault unveiled Tuesday the detailed program of Mr. Attal’s visit as part of the 21e Alternate meeting of Quebec and French prime ministers (RAPM).
Before his arrival in Quebec, Gabriel Attal will be in Ottawa on Wednesday and Thursday, where he will meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon.
Mr. Attal will then land at Quebec airport on Thursday afternoon, after which he will meet his counterpart François Legault.
He is due to meet later with the President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, and he will deliver a speech to Quebec deputies at the end of the afternoon.
Friday morning, Prime Minister Attal is scheduled to visit a school in Quebec and participate in a work session for the RAPM. A joint press briefing with Prime Minister Legault is then planned.
After a visit to the Quebec International Book Fair late in the morning, Gabriel Attal will go to Montreal, where he will be present at a “high-level economic round table of the prime ministers of Quebec and France”.
His visit will conclude with his participation in an event organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, which will focus on Franco-Quebec partnerships.
The RAPM, originally scheduled to take place in 2020, has been postponed four times. It will therefore ultimately not be former Prime Minister Jean Castex, nor former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne who will come to Quebec, but rather Mr. Attal, who has been in office since January.
This will also be François Legault’s first meeting, since the last one dates back to 2018, under the leadership of former Liberal Prime Minister Philippe Couillard. The COVID-19 pandemic and then the legislative elections in France forced the cancellation of the meeting in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The RAPMs have been taking place since 1977 and are usually held every two years.