Everything has been said about these millions of dollars in subsidies allocated by the Quebec government for the holding of two Los Angeles Kings preparatory games at the Videotron center next year. “The next six months will be very difficult,” Minister Girard said last week when presenting an economic update containing only crumbs to support Quebecers who will suffer the most.
We tell ourselves that at least we can count on the entertainment offered (at our expense) by the NHL. The affair has the advantage of having rallied everyone to the register of discontent, from the sporting world to the parliamentary oppositions, including the trade union community and platform managers of all kinds.
We often subsidize cultural events and no one is outraged, the government defended itself, acting as if there was no qualitative distinction between professional hockey and, for example, a major music festival. . People like it, going out, it does them good, it keeps the economy going, what do you have to complain about? And what difference does it make, five to seven million dollars, on a state scale, anyway?
Not much, it’s true. But five to seven million turns out to be roughly the missing portion of the funding granted to food banks in the economic update. A real “slap in the face” for the staff and users of these organizations, we could read in these pages, while food insecurity is increasing across the country and the demand for help is exploding.
You can’t make up such a coincidence. So much so that this is the angle that ended up making headlines: the NHL is collecting the missing share of food aid for the least fortunate Quebecers.
Of course it is a symbol, but a symbol that recalls the proverbial arrogance of the members of the Legault government, who have gotten into the habit of showing off their familiarity with abundance every time they ask the population to make an “effort”.
Pheasant hunting trips on a private island of Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon which surface as he trumpets the virtues of energy sobriety. Confinement shots of CAQ ministers in their spacious homes bathed in light, while the government calls for patience and reimposes a curfew on the province. There is no denying that they have a sense of drama.
Last weekend, the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, added fuel to this mill by tampering with the price of rents, on the plateau of Marie-Louise Arsenault. Visibly surprised to be asked questions about her files on a Saturday evening (on public radio, surrounded by journalists), she underestimated by a few hundred dollars the average price of a 3 and a half in Montreal. The extract immediately made the rounds of the headlines. The motive is well known: a politician is wrong about the price of bread, milk, rent. See the disconnect, see the neglect.
There is certainly that; a Minister of Housing immersed in the management of a major housing crisis should know what it costs for a tenant household to find housing, and what the price of rent represents when you have limited means. When we claim to have a sincere desire to meet the housing needs of the population, the least we could do would be to have intimate knowledge of the challenges faced by the most vulnerable people in the housing market.
Even excusing this wandering, the rest of the interview given by Minister Duranceau is as revealing as the excerpt that went viral. In the 22 minutes of the interview, we understand that the minister wants more than anything to present herself as a hard-working person, who knows what she is talking about, who has done her homework; as a person above all virtuous and deserving.
Trained in accounting and taxation, she made her mark as a real estate entrepreneur when there were doubts about her skills, she confides. His financial success comes from working hard and using his money wisely. “I didn’t steal anything from anyone,” “we wish people the best,” she says.
As for her arrival in politics, she explains that when something displeases her, she takes action. No question of just grumbling on the sidelines. This is all that, according to her, can be seen in the handling of her cases: no a priori for real estate developers or for tenants, only neutral and benevolent arbitration, a sincere desire to meet the needs of the greatest number.
This moral innocence, coupled with this absolute adherence to the idea that it is only by working hard that one becomes lucky, and that wealth, the habit of privilege, in no way colors the way one looks on the world, summarizes everything we need to know about the government of François Legault.
This also places those who struggle, those who receive as an insult this constant mixture between avarice and complacency, in an inferior moral posture, a posture of bitter beggars. Are you jealous of the people who have beautiful houses? Don’t you like hockey? Don’t you want us to have fun when the economy is bad?
It is a manipulative policy, which cuts short any analysis of power relations, and sends the message that if things go badly for Quebecers, ultimately, it is their fault.