I remain convinced that François Legault is enraged, ulcerated by Ottawa’s intrusions into Quebec’s areas of jurisdiction.
The latest burst is among the most scandalously ranting and electioneering in our history.
If there were easy solutions, we would have found them.
It’s a long way from the time when Duplessis outright banned Quebec universities from touching Ottawa’s money.
- Listen to Joseph Facal’s column via QUB :
What to do?
Ottawa’s intrusions into these areas which do not fall under its responsibilities are done through what is called the federal spending power.
They take four forms: block transfers to provincial governments, co-financed programs, direct transfers to individuals and municipalities, and equalization.
They are problematic because they impose priorities on the provinces that are not theirs, disrupt their planning, create bureaucratic monsters, occur in areas where Ottawa often has no expertise, and downright undermine the spirit and the letter of federalism.
In the 1867 constitution, there is not a word about this federal power to invade jurisdictions that are not its own.
In the 1982 constitution, only equalization is explicitly mentioned.
In court judgments, federal power is mentioned and admitted, but it is never presented as based on established constitutional principles.
For a long time, the Quebec government considered challenging it in court.
He never did so, fearing that a defeat would finally give this power this missing solid legal basis.
But today, when the Prime Minister of Canada bluntly says that he will do as he wants under the pretext that people “don’t care,” what does Quebec have to lose?
If he wins, he slows down Ottawa. If he loses, he illustrates the true nature of the Canadian system, less and less federal.
Anyway, meanwhile, Ottawa is doing what it wants with our money and everyone is holding out their hands like beggars.
We could for example ask the court, as suggested by jurist Marc-André Turcotte, whether the existence of this power is compatible with the supposedly federal nature (therefore based on a clear sharing of powers) of the political regime.
More broadly, Quebec has several renowned constitutional experts on these issues.
The CAQ government is looking for “Top Guns,” he says, to manage health.
We have “Top Gun” constitutionally. They just want to be useful.
Photo Agence QMI, JOEL LEMAY
To act
We must bring them together in an operational cell, a “task force”, under government coordination, and ask them to turn over all the stones, to think outside the box.
It would then be necessary to launch a continuous, sustained judicial guerrilla war on multiple fronts.
We would put obstacles in the way of Ottawa and expose, for those who have not yet understood, the imperial nature of the Canadian regime.
We are there. Who offers better?