Quebecers are divided over the impact of the creation of Santé Québec, the baby of Minister Christian Dubé. According to a SOM survey* carried out for La Presse, 50% of respondents say they completely agree (10%) or somewhat agree (40%) to say that Santé Québec will improve access to healthcare. health. The others tend to disagree (20%), strongly disagree (10%) or don’t know (20%). Will the creation of this agency make the health system more efficient? According to the survey, 49% strongly agree (12%) or somewhat agree (37%) with this statement. In contrast, 51% either somewhat disagree (20%), strongly disagree (9%), or don’t know (22%). Note that 70% say they have already heard of Santé Québec.
To decarbonize Quebec by 2050, “we must practically double our current electricity production and we have 25 years to do it.” The bill tabled by Pierre Fitzgibbon on Thursday aims to allow Hydro-Québec to accelerate the pace to achieve this.
A page of history is turning at the end of this parliamentary session. On Friday, the deputies debated for the last time in the Blue Room as we know it. A commemorative photo was taken the day before. This is because the National Assembly hall will undergo a makeover, work for which the total cost is still unknown. These are the first major renovations since the end of the 1970s: the “Green Room” turned blue with the implementation of televised debates. From the start of the school year in September, and for at least two years, elected officials will sit in the Red Room, which has been redeveloped in recent months. The President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, made a “little aside” this week to highlight one of the factors explaining the need to do the work…
It was time to take stock this week in Quebec. The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (APNQL) presented its bulletin to the Legault government on Wednesday regarding relations with First Nations. According to the AFNQL, the CAQ fails in all subjects. The best grade she gets is a “C-” for youth protection actions. The government even gets an “F” for recognizing the right to self-government of First Nations. Hydro-Québec does better, with the AFNQL giving it a “B”. A report that stung the minister responsible for First Nations and Inuit, Ian Lafrenière. “I accept the criticism, but to be told that nothing is being done, I don’t agree. So the grade I give us is A, let’s move forward! And Y because I admit that it won’t be easy! »
The victory of Claudia Sheinbaum, the runner-up to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in the presidential election in Mexico, is historic. We will have to see what effect the arrival of a first woman in charge will have in Mexico, but former Canadian diplomat Louise Blais has already noticed one on a North American scale. “The trilateral “Three Amigos” brand attached to the North American Leaders’ Summits (NALS) since 2005 must be put aside and replaced with something less cumbersome than “Two Amigos and an Amiga”. Maybe “Trio”, gender neutral and trilingual? You will have read it here first,” the former ambassador and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations wrote in Policy magazine. We will have to see what happens to his suggestion at the next Canada–United States–Mexico summit, which is normally scheduled to be held in Canada in 2024. No date has yet been announced for this trilateral summit – a tradition that is was on hiatus during former President Donald Trump’s tenure in the United States.
We are far from the outpouring of joy. “The Government of Canada congratulates the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, on his re-election,” read a statement sent Wednesday from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office. The conclusion is even less warm: “As a bilateral partner of India and within the Indo-Pacific region, Canada stands ready to work with this country to advance relations between our people so that they are based on human rights, diversity and the rule of law. » The lukewarmness of the message, as well as its impersonal nature, did not go unnoticed in the Indian media. “The congratulatory message comes from the official account [X] of the Canadian Prime Minister, and not from Justin Trudeau’s personal account, which he used just a few days ago to congratulate another leader,” we note notably in the weekly India Today.
Independent Senator Donna Dasko is wary of a victory for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party. And she’s getting ahead of the curve by releasing a poll she commissioned on perceptions of the Senate in its current form. The poll found that 69 per cent of Canadians want future elected governments to retain the appointment process that Justin Trudeau introduced in 2016 and that created a non-partisan Senate. Only five per cent of Canadians want to return to the old ways of appointing senators. “While it will take many more years of work to improve perceptions of the Senate, it is clear that Canadians view an independent Senate as a desirable quality for the upper chamber,” the senator said in a statement this week. Before joining the Senate, Dasko ran a polling firm.