Analysis: CAQ’s cabinet drama precedes National Assembly session

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QUEBEC — The gag going around parliament is that the politicians are going from blue to red this fall.

When the National Assembly resumes sitting Tuesday after a summer recess, MNAs won’t be settling at their usual desks in the main legislative chamber, known as the Salon bleu.

Under renovations to refit and modernize it at a cost of $32.2 million, that room will not be available for the next two years.

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Instead, the 125 MNAs are moving across the hall to set up shop in the second chamber, the former upper house known as the Salon rouge, which has been used for many years for committee hearings and formal events such as cabinet swearing-in ceremonies.

The Salon rouge was refit over the summer to temporarily accommodate MNAs. The desks and Speaker’s throne from the blue room have been transferred across the hall to the new venue so everyone will feel right at home.

“The status quo was no longer possible,” said Nathalie Roy, the president of the legislature, explaining the shakeup. “It’s been more than 50 years since major restoration work was done in the Salon bleu.”

The shift in location, which is not expected to alter the cut and thrust of daily question period, is only one of the changes for MNAs as Quebec’s 43rd legislature resumes work.

Politicians will return to work buzzing about the latest bit of political drama: the snap resignation last Tuesday of the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s “super-minister” and personal friend to Premier François Legault, Pierre Fitzgibbon.

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The departure overshadowed a CAQ pre-session caucus last week in Rimouski, with Legault forced to rapidly regroup by naming immigration minister Christine Fréchette to Fitzgibbon’s old job as minister of the economy, innovation and energy.

Jean-François Roberge picked up the immigration portfolio, which he adds to numerous other responsibilities, including French language minister, Canadian relations and democratic institutions.

“I will give all that I have to ensure Quebec advances in terms of economic development and energy transition,” Fréchette told reporters after she emerged from a swearing-in ceremony Thursday with the lieutenant-governor.

There could be an advantage in her appointment for Legault, who crossed swords with Fitzgibbon regularly.

Analysts are pointing to Fréchette’s different style of doing politics. Unlike the more flamboyant Fitzgibbon, who relied on a network of business contacts to cut deals, Fréchette is studious and well informed — as was on display in her previous role in immigration — and apt to check her facts before speaking.

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She did not have much time to get herself up to speed, though. Starting Tuesday, she will be in the hot seat, defending the sweeping bill on the governance of energy resources, Bill 69, drafted by Fitzgibbon before he walked out the door.

Fréchette, who has a history in business, was to spend her weekend poring over briefing books to be ready to answer questions on topics such as the hot potato Fitzgibbon left behind.

On his way out, Fitzgibbon warned Quebecers to brace themselves because the cost of going carbon neutral — and doubling Hydro-Québec’s current capacity — will mean a significant increase in hydro rates in the next five to 10 years.

Legault has been trying to put the genie back in the bottle ever since, pledging at his end-of-caucus news conference on Thursday that any increase will be no more than three per cent a year because Quebecers deserve decent power rates.

“It is Quebecers who are the real owners of Hydro-Québec,” he said.

If rates go up, it will be for industrial and commercial consumers, perhaps as much as six per cent, he added.

The energy issue will be front and centre during Tuesday’s session — something that no doubt pleases Legault as he tries to reignite some of the nationalist fervour that served the CAQ so well electorally in the past.

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But that was before the bloom came off the rose of his government in the last year when it got bogged down in other issues, such as the debate about a tunnel between Quebec City and Lévis.

With the Parti Québécois leading in the polls and a byelection in the riding of Terrebonne to replace Fitzgibbon in the future, Legault knows he has to fight back.

Legault said he plans to get more personally involved in the energy modernization issue, which he said is the most important infrastructure project in the history of Quebec.

“Yes, there is a minister responsible for energy, but whether it’s a bill or investment by a company, the premier has to agree,” he said.

He listed the issue as one of three priorities for the new session, along with health care and curbing the number of temporary immigrants.

Legault knows that as the CAQ enters the second half of its second electoral mandate, the clock is ticking toward the next election, in October 2026. The government has to get its reforms in the health and education sectors off the ground so citizens see the effects in emergency rooms and in the classroom.

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Among the obstacles ahead are stalled talks with Quebec’s nurses and doctors, which could mean a lively few months, and a painful spending-reduction operation — already being felt in the CEGEP and university sectors — as Finance Minister Eric Girard looks for ways to slay Quebec’s $11-billion deficit.

Girard will provide more details when he tables his November economic update, but on Wednesday he told reporters Quebec’s finances have “deteriorated.”

Legault nevertheless arrived at the caucus smiling, ready to fight on.

He delivered his usual pep talk to his MNAs, some of whom spent the summer nervously looking over their shoulders at a rising PQ. With Fitzgibbon gone, the CAQ caucus now totals 87 MNAs, including Legault.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Legault told his caucus Wednesday. “We have a big session ahead of us.

“As usual, we will face some headwinds once in a while, but tell yourselves we are working on the right priorities: education, health, environment, the economy, the defence of French, our identity.

“These are the priorities — not to do a referendum on sovereignty (as the PQ proposes).”

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He repeated that Quebec needs to reduce the number of temporary immigrants in order to protect French.

“We are clearly a nationalist party,” he said. “It’s important to win this battle again for Quebecers.”

Senior aides at the caucus mentioned some contextual advantages for the government. Quebecers, they noted, will be focused in the coming weeks on the U.S. election and the possibility of a federal election.

They confirmed Legault will continue his policy of not being overexposed to the media, limiting himself to one news conference a week. The strategy has paid off for the government: a Léger poll published Aug. 27 showed the level of voter satisfaction with the CAQ government is up.

The same poll showed the gap between the CAQ and rival Parti Québécois narrowed over the summer.

The three main opposition parties, however, will do their best to portray the government as old and worn out.

At their own caucus retreats last week, interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay and PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon seized on Fitzgibbon’s resignation, saying it’s a sign of the end of the CAQ regime.

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“If the motivation is no longer there,” St-Pierre Plamondon said, quoting Fitzgibbon’s departing speech, then the CAQ should call a general election now.

There is plenty of work waiting for MNAs when they return. Beyond Bill 69, other key pieces of legislation — holdovers from June — are on the agenda, including:

pauthier@postmedia.com

twitter.com/phiipauthier

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