Winter 2024 Session Review: What Caught Our Attention
A look back at the defining stories of a busy season
By Alex Lavoie 
January
Immigration: A Wake-Up Call
While the federal government had announced last fall its intention to maintain the threshold of 500,000 new arrivals in 2025, the question of immigration levels returned to the media agenda in January when the Parti Québécois made it the subject of its pre-session caucus. Its angle: framing the debate around immigration targets based on housing and services capacity. A snowball effect followed, as the other parties, including the government, acknowledged that a record number of temporary immigrants (temporary workers, foreign students and asylum seekers) were placing undue pressure on public services. Minister Christine Fréchette made it a priority issue with the federal government, seeking financial compensation, which resulted in a mixed proposal in recent days. Immigration has remained a hot-button issue between the two levels of government for months, with Premier Legault even invoking a word long considered taboo: a sectoral referendum. It is safe to say this file has not finished generating headlines.
January
Screen Time on the Agenda
As early as January, the Parti Québécois (PQ) announced its intention to put the issue of screen time among young people at the forefront of political debate. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (PSPP), alarmed by the effects of overexposure to screens, proposed concrete measures including banning cellphones in schools and holding a parliamentary commission. Despite initial rejection by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), the debate gained momentum, with growing pressure on the government to act, notably from its own youth wing, which succeeded in placing the issue on the agenda at the May general council. It must be acknowledged that the PQ managed to raise public awareness and spark a necessary debate, which could lead to concrete legislative measures in the near future.
March
A Record Deficit
March was defined by a Quebec budget with an $11 billion deficit, a record shortfall for the CAQ government, which had grown accustomed to balanced or surplus budgets since coming to power in 2018. A perfect storm had hit the government: rising interest rates and borrowing costs, slowing economic activity and tax revenues, a housing crisis, and urgent infrastructure needs. Departments and interest groups that had grown used to seeing many of their requests approved in recent years experienced the new reality as a cold shower. The Liberal Party, daring to reposition itself as the party of fiscal responsibility, attempted to take the upper hand in public opinion and give the CAQ a few lessons in economics and public finance. Whether this explains their uptick in the polls remains to be seen in the coming months.
March
The End of the Blue Dream
The spring session gave the Coalition Avenir Québec the opportunity to pull the plug on two nationalist projects: Panier Bleu, a local purchasing platform launched during the pandemic that had met with mixed success, and the Espaces bleus, which were meant to house a museum component highlighting the history of each region within renovated heritage buildings. While some saw it as an opportunity to shut down projects that had become financial sinkholes, others viewed it as a fading of the CAQ’s powder-blue veneer, particularly regarding its stated commitment to promoting local purchasing. In the case of the Espaces bleus, minister Mathieu Lacombe chose to end the project in the face of exploding renovation costs. Instead, the minister and the Premier announced that the Espace bleu in Quebec City, the only surviving project, would take the form of a National Museum of History.
April
France-Quebec Ties Renewed
April was marked by Franco-Quebec news. While Culture minister Mathieu Lacombe was attending the Paris Book Fair, putting Quebec in the spotlight, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was beginning a visit to Canada and Quebec. The youngest prime minister in French history revived a tradition, begun under the Lévesque government, of alternating prime ministerial visits by coming to meet with members of the National Assembly. Such a visit had not taken place since 1984. His stay gave the French Prime Minister the opportunity to skillfully invoke in his speech the bonds uniting France and Quebec, naming the importance of protecting the French language and, above all, secularism. His visit was also marked by a strong stance on the use of screens, giving new momentum to an already heated file, when he described the increasingly dominant place of screens in young people’s lives as a potential health and educational catastrophe.
April
The Government Presents Its Top Gun
The appointment of Geneviève Biron, former head of Groupe Biron Santé, to lead Santé Québec marks the ambitious launch of Christian Dubé’s sweeping reform. Coming from the private sector, Ms. Biron is taking on a complex mission: bringing effective management practices to bear on the bureaucratic weight of the healthcare system, often described as a mammoth institution, all in a climate of relative calm despite the concerns loudly voiced by unions. Whether such an agency will be able to deliver the long-sought changes remains to be seen.
April
Christmas in April!
Preceded by a media rollout rarely seen, the Trudeau government’s budget was characterized by its generosity, despite a $40 billion deficit, and its clientelism that paid little heed to the division of powers with the provinces. Purchasing power, a universal childcare system, housing, artificial intelligence, national defence, education funding: the list goes on. The federal government once again loosened the purse strings. The federal Liberals’ strategy to balance it all: make the wealthiest pay. No discussion of this budget is complete without mentioning the much-debated withdrawal of the capital gains exemption, criticized by many for its effects on asset owners, even more modest ones. Seeing a financial opportunity in this strategy, the Quebec government quickly followed suit by harmonizing its own rules.
May
Who Will Be in the Race?
He who leaves his place loses it. That is perhaps what Denis Coderre must be feeling after returning from his pilgrimage to Compostela. While he had been one of the only anticipated candidates for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party during the winter, the party now appears ready for a genuine race. Those who feared (or not) another coronation can rest easy, as the list of potential contenders has grown from a single candidate at Coderre’s departure to four presumed candidates. The names of Frédéric Beauchemin, Charles Milliard, Karl Blackburn and, more recently, Antoine Tardif are being mentioned with increasing frequency, which should rekindle the passions of dormant Liberal members. Recruiting female candidates remains a challenge in the face of Marwa Rizqy’s repeated refusals to enter the race. However, more and more voices are being heard hoping for a candidacy from the energetic federal Liberal minister François-Philippe Champagne.
May
Debate on Left-Wing Pragmatism
On April 29, the resignation of Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Émilise Lessard-Therrien sent shockwaves through the membership, plunging the party into an existential crisis. Elected by just three more votes than her rival Ruba Ghazal at the November congress, the former MNA for Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue had been in place for only four months. The reasons cited: a lack of consideration for her needs as an external spokesperson based in the regions, and above all, a challenge to the leadership of co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois (GND) and his inner circle. Two camps then clashed through a series of open letters in the media: the pragmatists and those who wanted the party to « keep its soul, » led by former MNA Catherine Dorion. GND nonetheless pulled off a political feat by steering the debate back to the importance of making QS a party of power with a simplified, pragmatic platform. This vision was largely endorsed at the National Council in late May through the adoption of the Saguenay declaration, aimed at making some of the party’s historic demands more appealing to the regions. The platform will be updated at the next congress in the fall.
May
A New Agency... in Transportation?
After a political drama that saw all mobility files for Quebec City handed over to CDPQ Infra, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility revived a project originally championed by the PQ with the aim of depoliticizing mobility projects: the creation of a Transportation Agency that is, in practice, a carbon copy of Santé Québec. In a context of contentious negotiations with municipalities over funding for public transit deficits, the minister also stepped in it by stating that managing public transit was not a responsibility of the state. While CDPQ Infra has already released some elements of its report on mobility in Quebec City, proposing to move forward with a scaled-down tramway project, the Agency will certainly not be ready to implement the tramway project. Does the government agility so keenly sought by the CAQ government truly lie in the magic formula of the Agency?
May
Housing Crisis, Image Crisis
The session was not easy for Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau. With the adoption of her Bill 31, which notably abolished tenants’ right to assign their lease, and several awkward statements that have stuck to her image, the minister had a dual mission this session: find solutions to the housing crisis and build credibility. How did she go about it? By using a shrewd political strategy: turning an opponent’s demand into an opportunity, reviving the spirit of legislation once championed by Françoise David. This allowed her to find more humane solutions to part of the housing crisis by imposing a three-year moratorium on evictions and lowering to age 65 the protection for low-income seniors in cases of eviction. This measure is considered by many to be an important gain, welcomed by housing groups, seniors’ representatives and Québec solidaire.
May
The Long-Awaited Shift Toward Home Care
Seniors Minister Sonia Bélanger distinguished herself during this last session by tabling an action plan to address the population’s aging care needs, centered on home care services, responding to repeated calls from seniors’ rights groups. Whether this plan will translate into concrete and swift action, as groups have been actively demanding, especially since the end of the pandemic, remains to be seen.
June
Close the Door, You Are Heating the Outdoors!
Finally tabled at the very end of the parliamentary session with no possibility of adoption before the fall, the long-awaited reform by super-minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, which aims to reconcile decarbonization and economic growth by increasing Quebec’s energy production capacity, drew many reactions. Several greeted the reform as a step in the right direction, while some critics argue that the minister’s preferred approach prioritizes energy exports over Quebec’s decarbonization.
Watch for at the next parliamentary session
As the mid-term mark arrives next October, will François Legault decide to shuffle his cabinet? Will he bring new players to the table, helping to ease the frustration of caucus members who have grown tired of the back benches? Will the CAQ’s strategy of pulling back from media appearances help rebuild public support? Will the ambitions of potential successors to the Premier begin to surface? How will the PQ manage to hold on to its first-place standing in the polls? Will QS be able to maintain balance despite the turbulence it went through over the past few months? And will the Liberal Party’s time in the wilderness come to an end with the excitement a coming leadership race could generate? These are just some of the questions we will find answers to in the months ahead.
Stay tuned for the fall!
To all of you passionate about politics, have a great summer!
