Already 25 years since the year 2000. Duty takes us back in December to a quarter of a century punctuated by significant events and new trends that are still shaping our society. In this article: sometimes abandoned for lack of resources, often put on ice, certain collective projects nevertheless manage to survive the years to the point of marking an entire quarter of a century. Focus on eight persistent promises… kept or more or less kept.
A place in daycare for each child
It is not for nothing that the Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, is at the bottom of the ministerial bulletin of colleague Michel David. The former mayor of Sainte-Julie is struggling to counter the lack of daycare places. According to the ministry’s most recent statement, 31,497 children are still waiting for a place. The problem is not new. Created in 1997 by Pauline Marois, the network of early childhood centers (places at $5 per day, today at $9.10), paradoxically praised all over the world, remains inaccessible to a large part of the population. , and other forms of childcare services (family environment, subsidized daycares) are not enough to fill the void. A sign of the chronic nature of this problem, the My place at work lobby, created by mothers deprived of work, is entering its fourth year of existence. The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which had promised to create 37,000 places by March 31, 2025, has so far opened around 25,000. Will the minister be able to deliver the 12,000 that are missing in barely three months? And this, while ensuring quality services?
A vote for electoral reform
Reform of the Quebec voting system was in the air at the start of the millennium. In 2001, the PQ government of Bernard Landry was in favor of the establishment of proportional representation, although it made it conditional on Quebec’s accession to independence. The project, which was defended for a while by Jean Charest’s Liberals, was put on ice under the leadership of Philippe Couillard in the spring of 2018. In response, the Coalition Avenir Québec, the Parti Québécois and Québec Solidaire formally committed to table a bill modifying the voting method in the year following their election. However, the promised reform has still not been achieved, six years after François Legault’s party took power. Bill 39 establishing a new voting method presented in September 2019 died on the order paper with the call of the 2022 elections.
Unclog emergency rooms
“We are going to reduce the lists and the waiting times, whether in the emergency room, for surgery, for diagnostic tests…” The statement could have been written last week, but it dates back to June 2003. Newly elected, Prime Minister Jean Charest reiterated his promise to relieve emergency room congestion. He had also campaigned on access to health services. Fifteen years later, the CAQ promised to reduce the average wait in the emergency room to 90 minutes before being elected for the first time in 2018. “Quebec’s emergencies are breaking down everywhere,” lamented François Legault at the time. However, according to the dashboard, it is now almost 3 hours, and in some places, it is reported that patients have waited more than 30 hours. Regularly pressed on the subject, Minister Christian Dubé seeks to divert patients from hospitals to other services through the Front Line Access Desk. Over the coming months, we will see if the new Santé Québec agency will be able to do better.
The Nordiques on the ice
We can no longer count the articles announcing the imminent return of the Quebec Nordiques, whether through an expansion of the National Hockey League (NHL) or the relocation of a moribund team from the southern United States. The project launched by the citizen group I have my place took off in the wake of the 400e anniversary of Quebec. In 2011, Mayor Régis Labeaume reached an agreement with the Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, for the construction of an amphitheater, the management of which was entrusted to Quebecor. The building, whose circular silhouette evokes a snowdrift, was completed in 2015 for $370 million. His presence in the landscape of the Old Capital was not enough to convince the NHL to grant a franchise to businessman Pierre Karl Péladeau. In the absence of the Nordiques, hockey fans in the capital were able to attend two preparatory matches of the Los Angeles Kings, whose visit last October cost Quebec taxpayers more than $5 million.
-On the road
Bitumen is part of the DNA of political parties in electoral mode. This is evidenced by the extension of the Quebec highway network, which has gone in all directions over the last quarter of a century. North of Quebec, Route 175 went from two to four lanes between the spruce forests leading to the Saguenay at the end of a mammoth $950 million project. To the south, the Robert-Cliche highway was extended through Beauce to Saint-Georges while the 20 was stretched east to reach Mont-Joli, at the gateway to Gaspésie. Bas-Saint-Laurent, however, awaits the promised completion of a segment of around fifty kilometers between Trois-Pistoles and Rimouski. Construction sites also increased in the greater Montreal region, which remained congested despite the reconstruction of the Turcot interchange and the extension of Highway 30 between Châteauguay and Vaudreuil-Dorion.
Reduce unemployment
Some promises made headlines for years before becoming almost obsolete. This is the case of the recurring commitment of politicians to create jobs to reduce unemployment. During the 2012 campaign, Jean Charest promised to create 250,000 jobs to reach full employment. At the time, the unemployment rate was 7.7% in Quebec. Ten years later, due to the labor shortage, it reached a historic low of 3.9% in 2022. In certain regions, such as Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches, it is even worse. The promise is therefore reversed: we must not create jobs, but find employees. In industries, but also in health, education, construction, etc. It is in this context that Quebec is banking on massive recruitment of temporary workers. Two years later, the unemployment rate was 5.9% in November and the government is taking steps to reduce the arrival of foreign employees.
The “return” of the belugas
“It’s time to act! » launched the government of Lucien Bouchard in its Action Plan against climate change presented in 2000. The document featuring a “WordArt” graphic typical of the time emphasized the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) , which fell in 2022 by 19% below the symbolic bar of 1990 thanks to the establishment of the carbon market in 2013. The network of protected areas has for its part been extended between 2000 and 2024, going from 2.73% to 16.89% of the territory. Added to this are marine protected areas, which now extend over 12.21% of Quebec. As for belugas, whose imminent disappearance was feared at the end of the last century, their number increased from 880 to 1,850 between 2013 and 2023. This spectacular increase can, however, be explained by a more precise census of the herds which brought together nearly 10 000 belugas at the beginning of the 20th centurye century.
Keep religion away from schools
25 years ago, with “Bill 118”, the Parti Québécois government eliminated the religious status of all schools. The school boards were more likely to be linguistic. “We must move, in Quebec, towards fewer religions,” declared the Minister of Education at the time, a certain François Legault. A plethora of initiatives will be presented in connection with the secularism of schools: the holding of the Bouchard-Taylor commission on reasonable accommodations, new ethics and religious culture courses in 2008, the attempt at a Charter of Quebec values (2013), the Law promoting respect for the religious neutrality of the State (2017) and, more recently, the Law on State secularism (2019). And it’s not over yet. In the wake of the report on the Montreal Bedford school, which revealed the influence of a group of Muslim teachers, the Legault government is once again considering legislating.
