Peter Black

Peter Black

April 24, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

Dear Bill,

You have no way of knowing this, but my wife and I are big fans of your Friday HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher. It’s been an essential viewing ritual ever since we subscribed to HBO (yes, kids, we have Game of Thrones!), ever more so with the political rise of Donald Trump. 

Suffice it to say, you had us with that whole business of Trump suing you for suggesting he was sired by an orangutan because the primate’s fur colour is the only one in the natural world comparable to Trump’s trademark mop. It was obviously a joke, but Trump took the bait, and later dropped the suit.

We admired how you fearlessly skewered Republicans and Democrats, hosted panels that combined folks with all points of view, and interviewed a wide range of guests from Elon Musk to William Shatner to David Byrne.

We were thrilled that the show the week before the November 2016 election (that Trump won) featured a panel of three natural-born Canadians: comedian Martin Short, conservative commentator David Frum and former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm; soon-to-be former president Barack Obama was on the same show.

We noted that current federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has been on the show twice, the first being in November 2013, when she was a new Liberal MP after a high-profile career in business journalism. The second was in November 2015, when she was the newly minted trade minister in the Justin Trudeau government, destined two years later to negotiate a new free trade deal with the Trump administration. 

We remember how on that program you and Freeland sparred over the place of Muslims in North American society, with Freeland defending the principle of diversity. You, meanwhile, called out liberals who defend Islam, despite views that, for example, treat women as second-class citizens.

We think, Bill, that Freeland’s attitude may have stuck in your mind (which, you admit, is frequently “enhanced” by pot) as the kind of approach that would eventually brand the Trudeau government as, dare we say it, a beacon of wokeness. 

Hence, for whatever reason that triggered it, in a recent episode you devoted your usual closing “New Rules” editorial to exposing “zombie lies” about how wonderful Canada is – “Where all the treasured goals of liberalism worked perfectly. It was like NPR [National Public Radio] come to life, but with poutine.”

You went on to list the woes besetting Canada, from an enormous influx of immigrants, to pollution in cities, to the unemployment rate (compared to the States), to the price of housing: “If Barbie moved to Winnipeg, she wouldn’t be able to afford her dream house and Ken would be working at Tim Hortons.” 

You took aim at the “vaunted health care system, which ranks dead last among high-income countries for access to primary health care and ability to see a doctor in a day or two.” Can’t argue with that, although the U.S. ranks 69th in the world in quality of health care, according to another comprehensive survey.

We think you might want to invite your pal Chrystia back to the show to correct your assertion that “Canada has the highest debt to GDP ratio of any G7 nation. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds bad.”

I don’t know what it means either, but the fact is Canada has by far the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio among the G7 – 15 per cent vs 96 per cent in the U.S. Japan is tops with 159 per cent.

The point of your rant is that Canada is a “cautionary tale” for America: “You can move too far left, and when you do, you wind up pushing the people in the middle to the right. At its worst, Canada is what American voters think happens when there’s no one putting a check on extreme wokeness.”

Bill, thanks for thinking about Canada and all that, but, all joking aside, what’s happening in the American election, with Trump still a credible contender for president, would seem to be a more serious “cautionary tale” for the world than Canadian liberalism.

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Peter Black

April 17, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

“In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” 

It’s a little-known fact that Benjamin Franklin initially penned the famous quote in French. The American Renaissance man used the phrase in a 1789 letter to a French scientist in reference to Franklin’s uncertainty about the durability of the newly signed United States Constitution.

Whatever language it was written in, the message still holds true, although one suspects that once artificial intelligence makes human death obsolete, taxes will still be imposed on whatever sentient beings evolve in one form or another. 

Yup, it’s tax time, and in Quebec, being a distinct society, the annual rendering unto our contemporary Caesars is double the pleasure or pain for citizens. That is, of course, because Quebec is the only province that collects its own income tax, in addition to the federal government’s exacting of a pound of fiscal flesh. 

This oddity does lead to some understandable confusion for those who have scant interest in or knowledge of the complexities of federal-provincial fiscal arrangements, a group to which your scribe belongs. Most folks, though, do understand that having to file two tax returns does not mean paying double the tax. 

How Quebec came to have its own income tax is as exciting a tale as it sounds, except that the premier who pulled it off, that iron-fisted rascal Maurice Duplessis, rarely did anything boring.

As much as one might like to paint le Chef’s intention to give the Quebec government its own direct taxing powers as an affront to federalism, the fact is Quebec was simply taking back constitutionally-granted powers it and the other provinces had temporarily ceded to the federal government during the Second World War.

Seven of the nine provinces (this was before Newfoundland and Labrador joined the Canadian club) had separate income tax regimes at the time; Nova Scotia and New Brunswick did not, for whatever reason. British Columbia was quick off the hop, bringing in its own income tax in 1876, five years after it joined Confederation.

Quebec didn’t introduce personal income tax until 1939, under Duplessis, but, as circumstances would have it – blame Hitler – the federal government took over the provincial income tax powers with the 1941 Tax Rental Agreement.

After the war, though, only Quebec acted to reclaim its income taxing power, and it took much Duplessis arm-twisting and endless meetings and studies before the deal was finally done in March of 1954. Happy 70th birthday, Quebec income tax! Many happy … returns.

The other provinces were content to allow Ottawa to collect taxes, because it meant the federal government would use the revenue to address serious imbalances in provincial financing.

Thus was born one of the pillars of the Canadian federal system – equalization payments based on a fiscal Three Musketeers code of all for one and one for all. It is so central to the Canadian federation that it was enshrined in the Constitution in 1982.

In 2023-2024, Quebec received some $14 billion in equalization payments, one of six provinces to get the federal payout. The system has come under attack of late from the western provinces, who, because of the current structure of the equalization formula, do not get any payments. 

Of course, the same provinces did not complain about the formula when they were on the receiving end of the equalization subsidies.

As for Quebec’s separate income tax regime, there are periodic calls to have only one tax return, with Quebec collecting for the federal government. Indeed, the Conservative Party supported such a notion in the last federal election. We’re not sure if it is still the official Tory stand.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared a single income tax system administered by Quebec as a hill too far in the ongoing war with Quebec over jurisdiction. There’s just too much of a whiff of building the infrastructure of a future sovereign Quebec to consider such a move.

As Duplessis put it, “The power to tax is the power to govern.”
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Peter Black

April 10, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The Ville de Québec is replacing all its current parking meters with new terminals based on licence plate numbers.

The replacement program, announced in an April 4 news release, begins this week with installers working sector by sector to switch 143 old terminals for new ones. The work is expected to be completed by the end of the month, at an estimated cost of $3.4 million.

Coun. Pierre-Luc Lachance, the executive committee member responsible for transport and mobility, said, “The current system has reached a stage of technological obsolescence, and our objective was to proactively respond to the needs of citizens while improving their user experience.”

He said, “by adopting licence plate payment technology, our city is aligning itself with innovative practices observed in other large metropolises around the world.”

With a licence-plate-number-based system, payment is based on the vehicle, not the parking space. Thus, people can move from one parking spot to another without having to pay again as long as the time on the initial meter has not expired.

The new system offers other advantages including “the possibility of stopping the time, the addition of time without overlapping, the registration of several license plates, the sending of alerts when time has expired and easy access to history.

Parking enforcement will be carried out using cars equipped with licence-plate-reading cameras. A parking ticket will still be printed and placed on the windshield of the offending vehicle.

The system will be deployed first on Ave. Maguire and Ave. Myrand in Sillery before being rolled out to (in order) Limoilou, Saint-Roch, Vieux-Port, Vieux-Québec and finally Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

During the transition period, parking in the affected sectors will be free.

Once the payment holiday is lifted, rates will remain at the current $3 for 60 minutes. The city has also standardized the hours when parking is paid on its territory. Unless otherwise noted, on-street parking is chargeable daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. It also eliminated the notion of maximum length of time for parking.

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The Ville de Québec is replacing city parking meters with new ones based on licence plate numbers. 

Photo from Radio-Canada/Louis Gagné

Peter Black

March 24, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Developers of a project on a prime stretch of Grande Allée went back to the drawing board and came up with a redesign they hope wins the approval of residents and city officials.

The large site at 955 Grande Allée Ouest currently hosts a long four-storey office building, erected in 1958 as an insurance company office, which later served for many years as the headquarters for Loto-Québec.

The developers, Les Immeubles Simard, unveiled a new plan for the building at a public information session they convened at Loisirs Montcalm on March 19. The plan includes preserving the existing structure essentially as is, and building two residential structures behind, of four- and six-storey height, fronted on Avenue de Mérici.

The complex would create some 150 housing units of various sizes on what now is a large parking lot. Some 270 parking spaces for residents and office workers would be available in an underground parking garage yet to be built.

The new buildings would cover 25 per cent less surface than the previous plan the company submitted in 2021. The administration of former mayor Régis Labeaume rejected that proposal following negative reaction from the public regarding the impact of the project. 

Les Immeubles Simard, in collaboration with PMA Landscape Architects Limited, has been behind several noteworthy projects in the Montcalm district, including the Le Vitrail complex incorporating two historic villas on Chemin Sainte-Foy, and Les Étoiles on Grande Allée Est, a project on the site of a former monastery.

The Simard company acquired 955 Grande Allée Ouest in 2019.

As the architect in charge of the project, Sandrine Toulouse-Joyal, told the MonMontcalm local news website, “The vertical distribution of the project and the maximization of underground parking spaces would make it possible to preserve as much tree cover as possible and increase the percentage of green areas on the lot.”

The public presentation contained detailed studies on the impact of increased traffic and sunlight for neighbouring residences. Both are negligible, the studies conclude.

Jonathan Tedeschi, the president of the Montcalm neighbourhood council, who attended the meeting, told the QCT, “Several points of view were expressed during this workshop, but there seemed to be a consensus that the new version of the project was more interesting than the old one. Many modifications have been made, which makes the project more attractive.”

Two city councillors attended the session about the project, which straddles the border of the districts they represent: Catherine Vallières-Roland of Montcalm–Saint-Sacrement and Maude Mercier Larouche of Saint-Louis–Sillery.

Mercier Larouche told MonMontcalm, “The [housing] crisis we are currently experiencing is unprecedented. So, when developers do projects, when it happens near us, I can understand the concerns that it generates, but why we do it is really important. It’s an opportunity to respond to the challenges expressed and to achieve the targets we have set.”

The next step for the developers is to submit the new plans to city planning authorities. They have not put a price tag on the project.

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IMAGES BELOW 

This image shows the proposed housing complex to be built on Avenue de Mérici. 

Image from Les Immeubles Simard.

The former Loto-Québec headquarters on Grande Allée would largely stay the same in recently announced plans for a housing complex.  

Photo from Les Immeubles Simard 

Peter Black

March 27, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Festival d’Été de Québec (FEQ) organizers have said they did all they could to ensure a fair sale of festival passes in the wake of complaints about a system that left thousands of fans disappointed. 

With only half an hour’s notice, passes went on sale an hour earlier than planned, at 11 a.m. instead of noon, on March 20, the morning the festival announced the line-up of artists at a news conference at the Bell Imperial theatre.

Festival spokesperson Samantha McKinley explained the move was a means to thwart robo-callers and to relieve pressure on the online system given the enormous number of people on the waiting list hoping to get passes.

McKinley told Radio-Canada the festival recognizes the problem and will look at better ways to organize the sale of passes. She mentioned the example of the huge Glastonbury festival in England, where passes are distributed by lottery.

The root problem is the escalating demand for the passes, which, at $150 for the full 11 days, are priced far below other large festivals. Ottawa Bluesfest, for example, charges $150 for a day pass and $450 for the 10-day event.

The festival said about 70 per cent of passes sold went to fans in the Quebec City region.

FEQ programming director Louis Bellavance told the QCT the festival is committed to keeping the festival accessible and affordable. He said the business model, based on selling a large number of tickets at low cost, works because FEQ has the capacity, with a main stage that can accommodate 80,000 fans.

Bellavance said FEQ can sell 125,000 tickets knowing that with the diversity of programming at other sites, not all ticket-holders will want to go to the huge Plains venue for a specific headliner.

The huge crowds FEQ can draw for most acts is a powerful pitch to artists, Bellavance said. “Even if your name is Post Malone, I’m probably the only buyer out there that can look his agent in the eyes and say he is going to play for 80,000 plus.”

Bellavance said raising ticket prices to reduce demand is out of the question. He said the result would be that only people with money would be able to afford passes, and “you’re not gonna get the craziness on the field. It will become the high-end festival for people with money. And you know what happens with people with money…. They don’t cheer. They don’t cry. They don’t dance. So here you go. You, you killed the magic.”

Selling more tickets is not an option either, Bellavance said. “There would be a lot more people upset if they could actually get a ticket and could not get on the field to see Post Malone.”

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Peter Black

March 20, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

Not content with a massive redevelopment of a mall in an asphalt wasteland in Vanier, the company founded by brothers William and Jonathan Trudel is undertaking a similar major revamp in Sainte-Foy.

Last week, Trudel Alliance released details of a long-term plan to transform Place Quatre-Bourgeois into a residential and commercial zone, replacing the sprawling parking lot with green space and buildings with vegetated roofs. 

The plan, developed following consultations with residents, features some 1,500 housing units of various sizes, 15 per cent of which will be designated affordable housing and 10 per cent adaptable for people with physical disabilities. 

As for the aging shopping centre, the only tenant remaining would be the IGA grocery, which itself would undergo a facelift. The mall’s current tenants include Winners, Jean Coutu, Dollarama, Aubainerie and Nautilus Plus.

The new commercial mall will have the same configuration but with each tenant having street access. About 1,000 underground parking spaces would be created.

Construction is slated to begin in the fall of next year or spring 2026.

The Trudel company acquired the mall in 2019 from Toronto-based open-air mall giant First Capital Realty, one of seven Quebec City region shopping centres included in the $165 million deal. 

The previous year, the Trudels bought Place Fleur de Lys in Vanier, which is now undergoing a vast redevelopment.

A similar redevelopment is in the works for Galeries Charlesbourg.

PHOTO BELOW 

The vast parking lot at Place Quatre-Bourgeois is to be transformed into a more green residential and commercial zone. 

Images from Trudel Alliance 

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

Quebec City’s transit authority says it “deplores” last week’s provincial budget for failing to provide adequate funding for more environmentally sustainable urban transport.

Coun. Maude Mercier Larouche, the city executive committee member who heads the Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC), issued a statement in the wake of the March 12 budget, denouncing “the absence of a stable, indexed financial framework consistent with the objectives of the government’s sustainable mobility policy.”

What Mercier Larouche was referring to obliquely was the modest increase in the budget “to improve mobility and electrify public transit.” The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government spending plan includes just $700 million on top of the $13.8 billion allocated over 10 years.

Despite the lack of a big spending increase on modernizing urban transit, Mayor Bruno Marchand remains confident the Quebec government is still committed to funding a major “structured” transit project, notably the tramway.

He told reporters after the budget speech in the National Assembly, “We were told that there was still capacity in the budget [for the tramway]. We will see what they are able to do. If there is no launch in the next year, the region has lost.”

The minister responsible for the capital region and for infrastructure, Jonatan Julien, said the CAQ government is still committed to a transit project for the Quebec City region. He told a parliamentary committee studying spending credits in the budget, “We have not abandoned this firm and clear desire to create a structuring network for the national capital. We believe in it ardently.”

Julien said the tramway project is still included in the government’s infrastructure plan and the financing is secured. 

Julien also told the committee that several “red flags” prompted the CAQ government to pause the tramway project in November and ask the Caisse de dëpot et placement infrastructure division to study the region’s transit needs and file a report by June.

The red flags included the “tripled” estimated cost of the project, from $3.3 billion to at least $10 billion, the lack of consensus on “social acceptability,” and the fact no company had submitted a bid for the major infrastructure contract.

In a related story, Liberal party critic for the capital region, Montreal-area MNA Marwah Rizqy, blamed Julien, a one-time right-hand man to former mayor Régis Labeaume, personally for the lack of major projects in the region. 

Addressing the minister at a National Assembly committee session on March 13, she said, “They [the CAQ government] made many promises, they talked a lot, but they delivered nothing. Honestly, for the capitale nationale, it’s embarrassing.” 

“He [Julien] is the problem,” she said.

While the city awaits the outcome of the deliberations of the Caisse, RTC head Mercier Larouche said the CAQ government is thwarting the long-term goals of the transit body as “a leading player in achieving the GHG [greenhouse gas] reduction targets of the Quebec government, particularly in Quebec City where the share of emissions linked to transport is higher than elsewhere in the province.”

Mercier Larouche said, “We must demonstrate ambition to maintain and improve our service offering.… Without a stable, indexed and recurring financial framework, we will eventually have to make difficult choices, which go against our mission which aims to facilitate the travel of thousands of people daily, throughout the territory.”

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Photo below  

RTC president Maude Mercier Larouche “deplores” the lack of funding for transit in the CAQ budget. 
Photo by Peter Black from QCT archives

Peter Black

March 20, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

The Montcalm neighbourhood council is rallying residents to discuss the future of Provisions Inc., a popular grocery store on Ave. Cartier that closed suddenly under murky circumstances in January.

The Conseil de quartier de Montcalm has organized a meeting on March 25 to share information and gather opinions and suggestions regarding the fate of the store. It is to take place at 7 p.m. at the Centre culture et environnement Frédéric Back at 870 Avenue de Salaberry.

Meanwhile, the plot thickens as to what led the owners of the grocery, Stéphanie Guessas Bouillon and her husband Christophe Bouillon, to abruptly close and abandon the business they had acquired less than a year previous.

According to a Journal de Québec report, the couple, who came from Ardennes, France, rapidly found themselves in a perilous financial situation with the new business, a state of affairs worsened by health issues Guessas Bouillon was experiencing.

Le Journal contacted the lawyer for the couple who have since returned to France. Ahmen Harir said the Bouillons had closed the store “in extremis” due to Guessas Bouillon’s health problems as well as mounting financial difficulties.

Harir said the French couple were “scammed” by the store’s former owners. “The last six months have been a nightmare,” the lawyer told Le Journal. “She [Guessas Bouillon] was no longer sleeping, it was really catastrophic for them.… They had no other choice but to leave … They lost everything.”

In the same report, the former owners, cousins Vincent and Bruno Drouin, deny the couple’s allegations. The Drouins have sued the Bouillons for nearly $500,000 in Superior Court, the “balance of the sale price” established during the sale of the store in November 2022.

That lawsuit and other legal entanglements put in doubt a quick resolution to the future of the 70-year-old business, a popular spot, especially in summer when it becomes a miniature market for local produce.

The former owners have said they would be willing to help out any future buyer wanting to restart the business, but have ruled out reacquiring it. 

Jonathan Tedeschi, president of the Montcalm neighbourhood council, told the QCT there are reports of people interested in buying the grocery. 

He said the March 25 meeting will be an opportunity for “residents to come together to see what we can do.”

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Photo below 

The Provisions Inc. grocery store on Avenue Cartier has been closed since January. 

Photo by Peter Black from QCT archives 

Peter Black

March 20, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

“Le transmission t’a lâché,” the repairman said after listening to about five seconds of the violent thunka-thunka of our Inglis washer. (Who knew a washer had a transmission? It also has a clutch, the guy said).

This was the same repairman who had fixed the same washer a few years ago with a nine-dollar spring and a modest service charge. The same guy who last year made our fridge like new with a replacement part and the same reasonable house call fee.

Our washer is like part of the family, having cleaned a mountainous heap of our clothes, sheets, tablecloths and the like for nearly three decades. 

The transmission replacement, while not cheap, is much, much more affordable than the new machines, which, the repairman said with thinly disguised scorn, he’s been called to repair after only two years of operation.

Where are we going with this sentimental ode to an appliance? Well, as you know all too well in Quebec, all, or at least many, roads lead to the peculiarities, put politely, of the distinct society.

In this case, we mean how the looming application of the new jacked-up language law known as Bill 96 is causing concern in the major appliance community. Call it the “appliance compliance” showdown.

Quebec government language officials recently informed businesses what needs to be done to conform to the new regulations. In the case of household appliances, as of June 2025, wording of controls as well as digital displays must be available in French. 

Manufacturers are not thrilled about the new regulations – which are not actually new, the government of Jean Charest having given the idea a try in 2012 – and are not eager to comply.

The Association of Household Appliance Manufacturers submitted a brief to the government saying Quebec makes up just two per cent of the North American market and it’s not worth it for factories to retool at a high cost to accommodate that minor pool of consumers.

The association says a survey of its members indicated 90 per cent would not comply with the new regulations. 

The result, observers say, will be fewer choices and higher prices for Quebec consumers who would thus be tempted to buy online instead of patronizing brick and mortar stores.

Language Minister Jean-François Roberge begs to differ, saying the global French-speaking world numbers 320 million people and “if some companies don’t want to do business in Quebec to avoid translating the instructions on their products, if they refuse to speak to Quebecers in French, we’re convinced that their competitors will take advantage of these opportunities to the benefit of Quebecers.”

The government notes that in countries such as Belgium, Poland and Portugal, appliances are available in the local language. It also says as recently as 1977, 80 per cent of appliances sold in Quebec had bilingual controls, compared to two per cent today.

The larger question, one supposes, is how this measure in any way advances the elusive goal of Bill 96 to increase the use of French in the province.

As Journal de Québec columnist Marc-André Leclerc put it, “In Quebec, everyone understands what the famous ‘on/off’ on our devices means. No one became anglicized by cooking their pizza on ‘broil.’ So why waste your time and ask for a requirement that is not demanded by Quebec consumers?

In the meantime, our washing machine keeps chugging along unilingually. We take some patriotic comfort knowing our washer was actually built in Canada, an increasing rarity these days with household appliance production consolidated in the United States and Asia. 

If eventually our washer does give up the ghost and we want to get another Inglis, well, the brand still exists, but the company has been owned for decades by Michigan-headquartered global appliance giant Whirlpool. 

Of course, if, as seems likely, Whirlpool rejects the Quebec bilingual controls rules, we’ll be shopping for another brand.
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Peter Black

March 13, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

Nearly nine years after it hosted its final event, a concert by rock gods Metallica, the historic but obsolete Colisée arena is edging closer to demolition.

While consultations are still underway on a development vision for the zone that includes the Colisée on the ExpoCité site, Mayor Bruno Marchand has made it clear the building must go.

At a March 4 news conference to unveil sports and recreation infrastructure investments, the mayor reaffirmed his campaign promise to demolish the 75-year-old structure, which he said is beyond saving.

“It is not profitable. We had suggestions [for other uses], but the fact remains that it is an enormous infrastructure which is no longer suitable. Just bringing it up to fire safety standards is out of the question. It would cost a crazy amount.”

Official Opposition and Québec D’abord Leader Claude Villeneuve is of the same opinion. “Maybe it’s too old and needs too many repairs and investments,” he said in an interview with the QCT.

Villeneuve said he knows people have sentimental memories of the old arena and he wants to hear what people have to say about its future in ongoing consultations on the future of ExpoCité.

He said he disagrees with former mayor Régis Labeaume’s idea of transforming the building into a centre for “emerging sports” such as BMX and rock climbing. 

Labeaume estimated the cost of converting the building for its new mission at $40 million. When the former mayor made the announcement in 2021, the price of demolishing the Colisée was pegged at $17 million.

Limoilou Coun. and Transition Québec Leader Jackie Smith, whose district includes ExpoCité, is proposing a hotel for the site, in contrast to the mayor’s stated desire for more housing.

She told reporters, “I recognize the need and I am fighting to increase the number of housing units, but it’s going to cost a fortune to redo the place and we don’t need $3,000 housing in the neighborhood.”

Smith said, “I like the idea of densification, but not of creating a neighbourhood for rich people in this area.”

Villeneuve said a proposal for a hotel needs to be “coherent” with other developments in the area, notably the massive redevelopment in the Place Fleur de Lys zone the Trudel brothers’ company has launched, which includes a hotel.

Consultations on the future of ExpoCité are expected to continue into June. 

The Colisée, first built in 1949, has seen many changes over the years. In 1979 it underwent extensive renovations to prepare it to welcome the NHL’s Nordiques, which had been transferred from the World Hockey Association.

The last NHL game in the Colisée was a first-round playoff game in May 1995 between the Nordiques and the New York Rangers. Shortly afterwards, the team was bought and moved to Denver, Colorado, and renamed the Avalanche. More recently, the arena was the home of the Quebec Remparts, until the opening of the Videotron Centre in 2015. 

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Mayor Bruno Marchand has said he intends to demolish the Colisée Pepsi. 

Image from Ville de Quebec

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

March 13, 2024

Vowing to put an end to the “degradation” of the ambiance of the historic Old City, Mayor Bruno Marchand has announced the doubling of zones where motorized vehicles will be banned during the summer months.

Building on last summer’s pilot project, the city will create an additional pedestrian area to supplement the zone established last year in the “Latin Quarter” north of Côte de la Fabrique. 

The new zone will be south of Rue Saint-Louis between Ave. Saint-Denis and bordered by rues Sainte-Ursule and Haldimand. 

Eight concrete barriers will serve as barricades, and only local residents with city-issued passes, taxis and delivery drivers will be allowed to enter with vehicles. The zones will be in place every day from June 26 to Aug. 23 between 11 a.m. and midnight.

Other changes include the enlargement of the pedestrian walk on Rue Saint-Louis and the removal of parking zones on rues De Buade, des Jardins and Côte de la Fabrique to allow more room for pedestrian traffic and for restaurants with terrasses.

The mayor, speaking at a March 8 press conference at City Hall, said his administration is proceeding with these changes because “the status quo is not acceptable. The slow degradation is over.” He added he is determined to stem the exodus of residents from the Old City and prevent it from becoming like a “cardboard” Disneyland.

Marchand, who is the current president of the World Heritage Cities Organization, presented figures showing the residential population of the Old City has declined by nearly 700 since 2006, now totalling some 4,600. 

He said Quebec City is facing the same problem as hundreds of cities around the world where vehicular traffic and overdevelopment are threatening popular historic areas.

The city has launched a series of consultations on the “pedestrianization” measures it is putting in place in the Old City. Last summer’s changes drew some criticism for the impact they had when major construction projects were underway, such as revamping the square in front of City Hall.

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This diagram shows where new pedestrian zones are to be established this summer in the Old City.

Image from Ville de Quebec

March 13, 2024

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

If, as the pundits and pollsters predict, the Conservative Party of Canada romps to power some 16 months hence – figuring on or about June 2025 when the Liberal-NDP shack-up expires – it might be as good a time as any to take a look at what the government of future prime minister Pierre Poilievre might look like.

Before we go further, let’s accept that the Conservatives need to win 52 more seats than the 119 they now have (including the recent Toronto-area byelection win to replace ousted leader Erin O’Toole) to get past the magic mark of 170 seats for a majority. 

With some polls showing the Tories soaring into 1984 Mulroney territory (211 out of a 282-seat House), who knows what common sense lawmaking talent such an impending blue wave might wash up? 

We’ll soon get an inkling as the nomination process heats up and the rightward political stars come to light. The enticing prospect of serving in a Poilievre cabinet surely must be stirring in many an ambitious Conservative brain across the land.

So, what kind of timber might Poilievre have with which to cobble together a cabinet to axe the tax, give everyone powerful paycheques, abolish Justinflation and make Canadians forget about the woke Marxist-Liberal government?

Let’s start with his shadow cabinet, which, truth be told, casts a rather expansive pall, given that just about all members of the Tory caucus have been assigned some kind of critic task, no matter how insignificant. 

One of Poilievre’s two deputy leaders is Toronto-area MP Melissa Lantsman, who used to be a go-to Conservative talking head on CBC political panels; at least she was until the leader forbade members of his caucus to collude with the Liberal propaganda organ he has vowed to defund once he takes the keys to the kingdom.

Lantsman, a professional Conservative operative in the mould of Poilievre, is one of two out gay MPs in the Conservative caucus. She has been at pains lately to explain her leader’s recent declaration that trans women be forbidden to use women’s washrooms.

“I think the leader has made his common-sense Conservative position very clear, and our caucus stands by it, alongside most Canadians,” she said in a Hill Times report.
Who knows what portfolio the leader will assign Lantsman when the time comes – OK, if the time comes.
What about candidates for a future Conservative finance minister? The current shadow minister of finance is Edmonton MP Jasraj Singh Hallan. He has an accounting diploma from an Alberta college and a master builder certification with which he established his house-building business. Not a Michael Wilson or Jim Flaherty, perhaps, but who’s to say what it takes to manage a multi-trillion-dollar economy?
What about the prickly portfolio of Canadian Heritage, which handles everything from minority languages to culture to policing the internet to funding the CBC?
The shadow minister is Lethbridge, Alberta MP Rachael Thomas (née Harder; she changed her last name when she got married in 2021) who made headlines in November when she asked the current minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, to speak English at a committee hearing.
Thomas also got attention for claiming the CBC is “on the side of terrorists” and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets the criteria of “dictator.” She is also known to be among the more hard-core anti-abortion MPs in Poilievre’s caucus.
A recent survey by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada identified only 15 Conservative MPs in favour of the right to abortion. According to that survey, incidentally, four of the nine Quebec Tory MPs are known to be pro-choice; three have unknown opinions and one is declared anti-abortion.
While we’re talking Quebec, what might be the cabinet reward for Charlesbourg–Haute-Saint-Charles MP Pierre Paul-Hus? He was the only Tory member from the province to endorse Poilievre’s leadership bid in 2022, for the perfectly understandable reason that Poilievre “needed to have someone from Quebec supporting him,” for the sake of party unity.
Paul-Hus’s current caucus duty is serving as Poilievre’s Quebec lieutenant, which seems appropriate considering he reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in his 22-year military career. Pencil in Paul-Hus for Conservative defence minister.
We could go on and on, of course, but the above are just a sampling of names to note for future Conservative cabinet fame – or notoriety.

          30 

Peter Black

March 6, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

One of the city’s main north-south arteries will be severed for several weeks while workers undertake a major repair job on underground infrastructure.

According to information from the city, the work on Boul. Pierre-Bertrand “is being carried out to remedy a break in one of the pipes which supplies drinking water to some of the city’s residents. The complexity of the work arises from the location of the pipe and its manufacturing method, thus requiring the collaboration of several teams with various skills.”

The four-lane boulevard is cut off between rues Beaucage and Nolin, with traffic rerouted along Boul. Père-Lelièvre to the west. The city says it will maintain access to businesses and residences in the construction zone. 

The street has been closed since Feb. 24 and work is expected to be completed in three to four weeks. 

          30

This barrier greets motorists on Boul. Pierre Bertrand at Rue Beaucage. Workers are replacing damaged water pipes. 

Photo by Peter Black

Peter Black

March 6, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

One of the most coveted and scenic sites in the city will be devoted to social housing, if a plan the city announced last week comes to be.

Under the plan, the former site of the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul church and community centre, a few years ago destined to become a luxury hotel, will welcome a two-building complex with some 170 housing units, a daycare and green spaces.

The plan is the result of consultations launched in the wake of the city’s acquisition of the site in 2022 after a prolonged dispute with a developer over the parameters of the proposed hotel.

A collection of community groups has been pushing for years to have the prized site in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste sector devoted to a social housing project. Those groups are Action-Habitation, the Fédération des coopératives d’habitation de Québec Chaudière-Appalaches, La Bouée and the Comité populaire Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

The groups hired the well-known local architecture firm Lafond Côté to draw up the vision for the site. One of the buildings will be designated as a residence for seniors with appropriate services. Both buildings will have “green” roofs with vegetation and gardens.

At a Feb. 26 City Hall news conference to announce the project, whose financing is yet to be determined, the city councillor for Cap-aux-Diamants and executive committee member responsible for urban development, Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc, applauded the breakthrough in a long deadlock.

“The models presented put forward a project on a human scale which fully meets the city’s objectives in terms of housing, sustainable development and active mobility,” Coulombe-Leduc said. She added the project requires no zoning changes.

The new project for the site contrasts with what former mayor Régis Labeaume had in mind when the city decided to take the previous owner to court to obtain the property. 

In November 2019, in rejecting a social housing mission for the site, he said, “It will be a park, an exceptional park, but there will be no building there.” He said he’d also like to see “a mechanical link there, to make it easier to travel between Upper Town and Lower Town.”

Coun. Claude Villeneuve, the current head of Québec d’Abord, Labeaume’s former party, said he supported the principle of the social housing complex. In a statement to the QCT, he said, “We are pleased to see such a project in Quebec City. However, [Mayor Bruno Marchand] is announcing a project for which he doesn’t even have a financial plan. He can pretend that the project got unanimous support but without providing a budget, it’s illogical and irresponsible.”

Villeneuve said, “We truly want to see such a project come to fruition in Quebec, but with the proper means. The mayor was unsure which provincial government program to reference. It is a bit concerning regarding the implementation. He said that the construction could begin in 2025 but many elements are missing.”

Limoilou Coun. and Transition Québec Leader Jackie Smith said she is “delighted” with the project. “After decades of procrastination regarding this land, we can only rejoice at the progress of this project. New local shops, greening, social housing, a CPE [daycare] and an RPA [seniors’ residence], this is what the neighbourhood needs,” she said in a statement. 

Marchand said it’s not certain how much funding the city or other levels of government will contribute to the project, but he was confident construction could start next year.

Coulombe-Leduc said the adjacent former garage property which the city owns is not part of the project at the moment because of complexities relating to demolition of buildings on the site and decontamination of soil. She said the city did not want to delay the start of the larger project while awaiting preparation of the neighbouring site.

The 170 units in the two buildings, varying between six and eight storeys, are expected to welcome some 350 new residents to the Old City, which has been a priority for the city. It recently also acquired the nearby site of the former Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague school and Foyer Nazareth with a future housing project in mind.

  30 

This artist’s concept shows an aerial view of the plan for two residential buildings on the Ilot Saint-Vincent-de-Paul site. The Dufferin-Morency autoroute is at the bottom left. 

Image from Lafond Côté Architectes.

Peter Black

March 6, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

The Brian Mulroney political saga could well have come to an abrupt end on Feb. 22, 1976. 

The slick Montreal lawyer with small-town Quebec roots was up against a little-known Progressive Conservative MP from Alberta in the race to succeed “the best prime minister there never was,” former Nova Scotia premier Robert Stanfield.

Mulroney and his rival Joe Clark, both 36, faced the perceived favourite, former Quebec Liberal justice minister and federal PC MP Claude Wagner, whose son Richard is now chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Clark narrowly beat Wagner on the fourth ballot, with Mulroney eliminated on the third, far back from the top two.

After the convention in Ottawa, according to The Politics of Ambition, the 1991 biography by veteran journalist John Sawatsky, a bitterly disappointed Mulroney quoted U.S. senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan about the day President John F. Kennedy was shot: “If you are Irish, you know that at some point the world is going to break your heart.”

Broken-hearted and broke from campaign debts, Mulroney retreated to Montreal and settled into a despondency that often involved drink and railing against Clark. There is even a story that the federal Liberals, hearing of Mulroney’s agonized state, tried to recruit him.

But then, faith and begorrah, the luck of the Irish shone brightly through the gloom enveloping the Boy from Baie-Comeau. On Dec. 13, 1979, the minority government Clark had won by beating the mighty Pierre Trudeau seven months earlier was defeated on a confidence motion in the House of Commons. 

Your scribe happened to be in the gallery when the vote was counted that day, which, in retrospect, was one of the most momentous in recent Canadian history.

An election set for Feb. 18, 1980, would return a resurrected Trudeau and the energized Liberals to power, with a referendum on Quebec sovereignty to fight as a top priority. Holding court at the Ritz-Carlton Maritime Bar, Brian Mulroney knew he had been given a second chance to realize his ambition thanks to a fatal error by his nemesis.

The fight in the 1983 Tory leadership convention that followed a leadership review the previous year was bitter, but Mulroney finally edged Clark out on the fourth ballot. Still, it was a close vote, with Clark ahead on the first three ballots.

We raise this no-so-farfetched “what if …?” because it’s hard to imagine what might have transpired in Canadian politics if Joe Clark had won that fateful vote – as he easily could have with a little more procedural smarts – and Brian Mulroney was rendered a footnote of history.

Maybe he would have eventually swallowed his considerable pride and become a powerful Quebec minister in a Clark government. Maybe he would have stayed put in the corporate world and made a fortune – his stint between 1976 and 1983 as president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada had already given him lifelong financial security.

From the torrent of reflections on Mulroney’s legacy published since his death on Feb. 29, one gleans that his was a record of exceptional achievement, but also of failures and human weakness. This was exemplified by the fact the same man who won the largest majority in history for his party in 1984 also left it in a position to be all but wiped out in the 1993 election. 

Two years after that epic defeat of the soon-to-be-extinct Progressive Conservative party, Canada came close to chaos and break-up in the second Quebec sovereignty referendum in 1995. 

That national nail-biter was the direct result of Mulroney’s well-meaning but high-risk Meech Lake Accord, an attempt to repair what he perceived to be Pierre Trudeau’s error in adopting an amended Constitution lacking the signature of Quebec premier René Lévesque, who had just lost the 1980 referendum.

Mulroney’s aim 10 years later to have Quebec renew its vows with Canada with “honour and enthusiasm” backfired into a roaring backlash of humiliation and anger.

The Accord died in June 1990, the result of a baffling three-year deadline for ratification by all 10 provinces. Two years later, the Charlottetown Accord, an attempt to appease recalcitrant provinces, was defeated in a national referendum.

All political hell broke loose, and here we are 30 years later with the Bloc Québécois still a force in Quebec and an ascendant Parti Québécois threatening another episode of referendum drama. 

That little quibble aside, we salute a remarkable character, a bold leader who achieved much and was not afraid to “roll the dice.” 

      30 

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

March 6, 2024

peterblack@qctonline.com

The newly renovated Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy has a performance theatre, a movie theatre, a kitchen area, a terrasse with a garden, several play areas for children, a recording studio, a broadcast room, bold works of art, musical instrument rentals, a seedling plant zone, a number of meeting rooms and more.

It also has books and documents, as a library should – more than 200,000 of them.

With a strike by city library employees delaying the official reopening of the facility (see article on p. ??), officials gave reporters a tour Feb. 28 to unveil the results of years of construction and planning dating back to 2016.

Visitors to the library, when it does open to the public after its $43.3 million makeover, will see a vastly brighter, more open and varied space compared to the gloomy interior of the original building that opened in 1983. While the familiar staircase and circular storeys remain, they have been completely rebuilt.

Designed around the concept of 10 “thematic centres,” the building itself is more than a quarter larger than the original structure, at 10,500 square metres. The design team was a consortium led by Saucier + Perrotte and GLCRM.

Mayor Bruno Marchand said in a statement, “This central library is an exceptional place – one of the most beautiful in Canada, and I would even go so far as to say in the world.”

While the transformation of the library’s interior space and exterior structure is an impressive enough achievement, the city architect overseeing the project has said the most difficult challenge was having to essentially redo from top to bottom an existing structure in a busy urban zone.

Yasmina Lacasse said transforming a building erected in the 1980s to conform to current regulations meant “lots of changes to the structure” in terms of, for example, earthquake resilience standards and electromechanical infrastructure.

On top of the architectural and engineering challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic and its ripple effects presented a major setback and caused construction delays. In spring 2023, “major repairs to a beam” delayed completion further. The opening date was initially targeted for last spring. 

Although there is some question about the global cost of the project, officials say it stayed within the $43.3 million budget with the help of some cost-cutting measures such as reducing the size of the rooftop terrasse.

The provincial government contributed about $10 million and the federal government $1.5 million to the project.

Lacasse said, “I’m just hoping every citizen finds themself in it, likes every space or just only one, and maybe discovers something else, something new, something that could be interesting. So I really hope citizens like it as much as we thought they would.”

The library features some 11 major art pieces by Quebec artists, including the refurbished work by Micheline Beauchemin that hangs in the atrium, comprising some 18,400 strips of golden aluminum.

There is also a portrait of the library’s namesake painted by Jean-Paul Lemieux in 1953 and on loan from the Institut Canadien.

The library’s extensive archival collection will be more accessible in the new building. As an example, on display for the media tour was a city register with the signatures of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth dated May 17, 1939, signed when the royal couple toured Canada and the United States to drum up support for the impending war with Nazi Germany.

Whenever the library finally opens to the public, Marchand said, “It is up to the population to reclaim this incredible place of culture and knowledge which will become an important part of our cultural signature in Quebec.”

    30 

The familiar hanging artwork has been restored and returned to the newly revamped main staircase in the library.

Photo by Peter Black

City architect Yasmina Lacasse, who oversaw the project, checks out the secret door in the children’s book section.

Photo by Peter Black

Peter Black

Feb. 28, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

If you’ve been paying attention, reader, you will know the world may be on the verge of a big change. Not today, not tomorrow, but likely during most of our lifetimes. 

That change is fusion energy, and, if you can believe what scientists and investors are saying, the new form of power is about to transform the world’s energy technology and possibly chase away the black clouds of climate change. 

Justin Trudeau once dazzled reporters – back in those “sunny ways” days – when he explained quite convincingly the concept behind quantum computing. I won’t and can’t do that when it comes to nuclear fusion energy.

The best I can venture is that fusion is the process of combining atoms to make energy, as opposed to fission, which is splitting atoms to make energy, like they do for nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. And, oh yeah, fusion has something to do with magnets.

Suffice it to say, creating fusion energy is vastly complicated, although it is based on the simple scientifically proven process by which our sun and all those countless stars create energy to shine so brightly. Recreating the sun’s energy? How hard can that be?

Hard, but not impossible, and hence the world finds itself in a sort of arms race, with a growing number of demonstration projects springing up around the world. It’s like having dozens of Manhattan Projects working feverishly to be among the first to build a viable, reliable commercial fusion energy plant. 

When that is done, they say, humans can start shutting down other kinds of carbon-based energy plants, because fusion will be cheap, safe and environmentally benign. 

Two Canadians are deeply involved in the quest for commercial fusion energy – our very own Oppenheimers, if you will – and both have solid Quebec connections.

It’s not often both The Economist and The New Yorker talk about two Canadians in the same article, so featuring two Canadian scientists, both of whom are working at the forefront of world-changing technology, may be a first. 

Michel Laberge is a physicist born in Quebec City who studied at Université Laval before heading off to do postgraduate work at UBC. After working at an industrial laser company in Vancouver, he created the General Fusion company, according to one biographical note, working alone in a converted gas station garage to develop a proof of concept model of his specialty, magnetized target fusion.

General Fusion boasts on its website: “We are leading the commercialization of fusion with the most practical, cost-competitive technology. Our innovative and protected technology is the result of 20 years of development and 150 patents, and pending patent applications.”

General Fusion is building a demonstration facility at its Vancouver headquarters, but also, as of last month, it has approval to build a 70 per cent scale prototype commercial fusion reactor in the quaint English countryside near the city of Oxford. 

The other prominent Canadian in this nuclear-fusion quest is Dennis Whyte, whom The New Yorker describes in an October 2021 article as “a gentle giant from Saskatchewan, Canada. “If you’ve ever been to the middle of nowhere, that’s where I grew up,” Whyte told the magazine.

Still, the Prairie boy thought big and followed up his University of Saskatchewan physics doctorate with a stint at the plasma physics program at the now-closed Université du Québec facility in Varennes, south of Montreal.

“I thought, ‘Great: I’ll learn French and get to work on a tokamak,’” he said, referring to the doughnut-shaped machine whose design is used for fusion experiments.

Whyte went on to the Plasma Science and Fusion Centre at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from which was spun off Commonwealth Fusion Systems which is building a prototype reactor on MIT’s Devens campus.

Commonwealth is targeting 2026 for when its gizmo, called SPARC, will generate “net gain,” meaning producing more energy than it takes to create it.

True, there are deeply seated concerns out there that, despite the enormity of the research effort and investment costs, fusion energy just might not be viable on a large enough scale. 

Of course, there were doubters who said the same about any quantum leap in technology, from human flight to the atomic bomb.

            30 

Peter Black

Feb. 21, 2024

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Quiz time: Which notable Canadian coined the phrase “a licence to print money?” A) Pierre Poilievre referring to Trudeau government spending, B) Pierre Poilievre referring to the golden opportunity of cryptocurrency or C) Lord Thomson of Fleet referring to his chain of radio stations in Canada?

The answer, of course (of course!) is Roy Thomson, once the most powerful media baron on the planet. That quote is often mistaken to suggest the “licence to print” pertains to “printed” newspapers, some several hundred of which Thomson once owned around the world. The QCT itself was part of the Thomson empire until the 1970s.

I know a bit about Roy Thomson, having had his portrait staring at me in the office of the newspaper editor who gave me my first job as a reporter. The newsroom, where we pounded away at electric typewriters with the ticker-tape clattering away and drinking bad coffee, was on the second floor in a magnificent Art Deco building in the town centre (now tragically demolished). 

The printing presses thundered away on the ground floor. 

The radio station was on the third floor (closer to heaven) and had all the wondrous sound recording technology of the era, and a studio where the local rock bands would cut their longshot demos.

It was in recording advertisements for radio broadcast where the printing of money was done. Low overhead, no physical product, meager wages for the on-air talent and a mostly captive audience. Thomson, who got his start in the media business selling radios, astutely figured the better way to make a buck was selling what we would now call “content” for those radios.   

That radio station in my hometown, which began broadcasting in 1933, is still on the air, although under new call letters and beaming out “hot adult contemporary” music, whatever the heck that is. It’s now one of the 52 stations Rogers Radio operates in five Canadian provinces.

Although it closed an AM station in the highly saturated Ottawa market in the fall, we’re not hearing much about Rogers retreating from the radio business on the scale of the bombshell Bell Media just dropped.

If you missed the news, Bell Media, a subsidiary of communications colossus BCE,  is cutting some 4,800 jobs from its workforce (about nine per cent of the total) by eliminating many television productions and selling off 45 of its 103 regional radio stations, the largest radio grouping in the country (Halifax-based Stingray Radio is second largest with 71 stations).

What is surprising about BCE’s big “restructuring,” besides the magnitude and suddenness of the cuts, is how quickly stations the media giant put on the block found takers.

In British Columbia, for example, Vista Radio, which already owns 51 stations in the country, snapped up 21 BCE stations in the province, excluding still lucrative stations in Vancouver and Victoria.

The new owner of the stations has vowed to protect jobs and even beef up the staff of some outlets. 

Here in Quebec, there’s a similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale. Arsenal Media, based in Saint-Lambert on Montreal’s South Shore, is a feisty and ambitious company, at least according to its website promotion. 

Arsenal owner Sylvain Chamberland, whose CV includes stints at Radio-Canada and TVA, pounced on the opportunity to acquire a batch of Bell Media cast-offs in the type of regional markets that are Arsenal’s forte.

Adding stations in Rimouski, Amqui, Drummondville, Saint-Hyacinthe and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu brings the total Arsenal radio … um, arsenal to 25 stations, making it the largest broadcaster in the province. 

It also validates the company’s stated commitment to regional and community journalism.

Chamberland said in an interview in Le Soleil: “Our business model is not to cut jobs, but rather to continue with what already exists and do it better. We launched local information platforms in each of our regions a long time ago. We believe in it. It’s written by journalists and not by ChatGPT!”

Radio may no longer be a “licence to print money” in this era where an ocean of social media, podcasts, digital channels and streaming services compete for the ears and eyeballs of readers and listeners with diminishing attention spans – now less than a goldfish, according to some studies. 

But clearly there is still money to be printed by companies attuned to the everlasting need for local news and information. 

30 

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Feb. 14, 2024

Where is a Marc-Antoine Dequoy when you need him? 

As folks may recall, Dequoy, a player on the Montreal Alouettes football team, unleashed an epic tirade on RDS after his team unexpectedly won the Grey Cup, blasting the Canadian Football League (CFL) powers-that-be for having scarcely a word of French at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, where the game was played in November. 

The same scenario basically repeated itself at the NHL All-Star festivities in Toronto recently, which, for the amount of Canada’s other official language to be found, could have been staged in any generic English-speaking city on the planet.

There was no potential Dequoy equivalent in attendance at the All-Star festivities, most likely because the roster did not include even one francophone player from Quebec. The only Quebec content was non-French-speaking Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki (from London, Ont.), who was there because all 32 NHL teams got to send a minimum of one player.

The snub – arguably on the same scale as Taylor Swift’s breezy obliviousness to Céline Dion at the Grammys – did not go unnoticed in Canada’s 80 per cent French mother-tongue jurisdiction. 

This comment about the unilingual English All-Star event popped up on my Facebook feed: “The RoC [Rest of Canada] does not have one gram of respect towards the French minority, and considering the Canadian content, it is just another sign that the RoC is rapidly becoming a USA clone. We who believe in a strong, bilingual Canada are not helped by this kind of parochial behaviour in Toronto, or by the NHL. I am disgusted.”

That was from an anglophone Quebecer.

Let us state, for the record, neither the National Hockey League nor Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment – 37.5 per cent owned by Montreal-based Bell Canada – are legally mandated to promote Canada’s bilingual status. 

That said, surely someone involved in organizing such an extravaganza in Toronto might have put up their hand and said, “Gosh, wouldn’t it be nice if the bilingual version of the national anthem could be sung, eh?” 

Nope, but organizers did manage to find a singer who draped herself in pro-Palestinian protest garb to warble the “Star-Spangled Banner” before the game. 

In more hard-core Quebec nationalist quarters, the All-Star game’s bilingual blindness was largely acknowledged as more of the same. The ever-quotable Journal de Québec/Montréal columnist Mathieu Bock-Coté chose to mock Quebec federalists for putting up with the rampant indifference to Quebec’s French fact.

“For them, it will always be better to negotiate down the defence of Quebec’s interests and reduce its identity than to mark a red line that must not be crossed, otherwise they would choose independence,” Bock-Coté wrote. “They prefer to see the Quebec people drown in English rather than break with federalism.”

A recent Leger poll shows support for sovereignty, despite the Parti Québécois’ recent rocket-riding under leader Paul St-Pierre-Plamondon, at 35 per cent of respondents, 21 points behind support for a united Canada. 

Whether or not a slight at the Grey Cup or NHL All-Star game or any number of compounding examples of disrespect for French – not to mention looming Supreme Court rulings on Quebec “identity” laws – will create what former premier Lucien Bouchard called “winning conditions” for a sovereignty referendum is an open question.

Bock-Coté, though, is more confident. He wrote: “Support for sovereignty is growing. Quebecers are coming back to life. And waking up. The next independence referendum appears on the horizon. The Oui camp has a good chance of winning. History is in progress. The independence of Quebec will be achieved.”

Maybe. One thing seems certain: Quebec independence likely would mean the end of a bilingual Canada from coast to coast to coast, as flawed as it is. And French would not only be scarce at the Grey Cup game, but pretty much everywhere outside the province.

As Dequoy said in nuancing his rant, his “emotions were high” because “I just felt disrespected for me and for my province and for my heritage.”

          30 

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

Feb. 14, 2024

Mayor Bruno Marchand was forced to explain why the city abruptly imposed a ban on wood-burning stoves and decorative fireplaces last week.

Most residents learned of the prohibition through local media, the actual official notice of the unprecedented move having been made in an avis public buried in a section on the city’s website.

The “preventive” ban, due to “atmospheric and weather conditions … conducive to a deterioration in air quality in the territory of Quebec,” according to a city official, took effect at noon on Feb. 7. It applied to “the use of any solid fuel appliance, even if it is certified, in order to limit the emission of fine particles and other pollutants into the air.”

The day the city imposed the ban was cloudless, sunny and clear. Another avis public announcing the lifting of the ban as of 6 a.m. Friday appeared on the city’s website on the Thursday prior.

At a City Hall scrum, Marchand said air conditions had improved enough to allow the ban to be removed and said he was satisfied with what was a first test of the city’s new measures on wood-burning stoves and fireplaces, adopted last year.

The mayor did acknowledge, however, that the method of communicating the ban could be improved. “We will obviously re-evaluate everything to see how we communicate it and how we continue to do it. It was a first experience; we will always prefer imperfection to nothingness,” he told reporters.

As for what atmospheric conditions prompted the ban, city spokesperson Jean-Pascal Lavoie explained in an email to the QCT that “the city uses different sources to model air quality forecasts. The decision to temporarily ban the use of solid fuel appliances is taken based on the anticipated deterioration in air quality.”

Lavoie said the ban “aims to moderate this deterioration and its impact on health. Remember that the emission of fine particles is a significant source of pollution which affects many people, particularly those with more fragile health.”

He said, “Fine particles remain suspended in the air and are not carried away by the wind or rise in altitude. These conditions are therefore conducive to a deterioration in air quality. This is why we try to act upstream to limit degradation.”

The stoves and fireplaces covered by the ban are targeted for complete prohibition as of 2030. Residents with the devices must register them by April 1. The city introduced the policy last year, following similar measures in Montreal.

A Radio-Canada report on Feb. 9 cast some doubt on the data the city is using to justify the crackdown on wood-burning stoves and decorative fireplaces. Marchand had said in announcing the policy in November that “143 of these devices emit as many fine particles in one year as the [city’s main] incinerator, or around 11 tonnes.”

The report cites environmental consultant Sébastien Raymond who says the data the city used to make calculations of the comparative amount of particles emitted is misleading and ignores the frequency of when fireplaces are used.

Marchand said the city will review its policy in light of the experience of the first ban under the new measures.

-30- 

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

It’s not often someone appointed to a government position immediately faces a unanimous parliamentary motion to abolish that position.

Such was the case for Manon Jeannotte when she was named as the new lieutenant-governor of Quebec in early December, succeeding J. Michel Doyon, who had held the post for eight years.

The day after the prime minister’s office announced her appointment, the National Assembly passed a motion at the initiative of Québec Solidaire to replace the colonialist relic of lieutenant-governor with a more democratic position. 

How did Jeannotte, the first Indigenous person to hold the vice-regal post, react? “I smiled,” she told the QCT in an interview last week in the lieutenant-governor’s office on the first floor of the André Laurendeau building behind the National Assembly. “I said to myself, ‘It’s politics and I completely understand. I was not angry. I understand. I was in politics. I know they want to abolish the position, but for me, as long as I have the position I will exercise diplomacy.”

Jeannotte herself had her doubts about how the appointment of a First Nations person might be perceived by the Indigenous community when she was initially approached about the position in July. “My first reaction was what about the First Nations. I thought they would be angry about that. But no, it was the opposite.”

She said she received hundreds of messages from people in the Indigenous community congratulating her on the appointment. “They are really proud.”

Jeannotte may be the first Indigenous person to be named lieutenant-governor in Quebec, but other provinces have had vice-regal representatives with Indigenous roots over the years. The first was Ralph Steinhauer, who then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau named to the post in Alberta in 1974. At the federal level, Inuit leader Mary Simon became the first Indigenous governor general in 2021. 

Jeannotte addressed the matter of the National Assembly resolution head on in her speech at her installation ceremony on Jan. 25. 

“As a First Nations person, I should be the very first to want its abolition – however, this is not the case. Like the majority of Indigenous peoples in Canada, I agreed to work with the system in place, namely the system of constitutional monarchy of which Quebec is an integral part.

“It is important to note that the first treaties with the British crown were signed in 1678 and that the principles governing the negotiation of these treaties are defined in the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which is still in force today.”

Jeannotte said the Trudeau government chose her for her community involvement, especially her years as a councillor and then chief of the Gespeg Micmac Nation in the Gaspé. She said her father, who worked as an advisor to Indigenous groups, inspired her to enter politics after years of working as a civil servant in Ottawa. She also names late Huron-Wendat chief Max Gros-Louis as a strong influence on her.

Following her term as chief, she worked as an economic development advisor for another First Nations community in Quebec before becoming the co-leader of the First Nations Executive Education program at the École des hautes études commerciales (HEC) in Montreal. 

In her inaugural address, the section in English focused on environmental issues. “I am fully aware that we need a prosperous economy; however, for me, it should always be done in accordance with the principle of the next seven generations.”

She said, “respect, reconciliation and the environment will be my priorities for the coming years.” 

Jeannotte thanked the Gespeg council she had served for 15 years for the gift of a traditional drum, featuring an illustration of Cap Bon Ami in Forillon National Park.

Amidst her new duties, both ceremonial and constitutional, such as signing acts of legislation into law, Jeannotte needs to find a place to live in Quebec City. The lieutenant governor’s office, while spacious, has no living quarters.

Jeannotte, 52, is not only the first Indigenous person and the second woman to be named lieutenant governor, but also the youngest person to hold the office. 

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Lieutenant-governor Manon Jeannotte met the QCT in her office. The drum mounted on the wall is a gift from the Gespeg Micmac council she served on for many years.

Photo by Peter Black

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Feb. 7, 2024

I’ve been thinking about aging. Not that I or anyone else has a choice in the matter. Ha, ha.

Kidding aside, kids, we are referring to aging as it concerns the two likely aspirants to lead the free world. 

The age of presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump, who turns 78 in June, and President Joe Biden, who turned 81 two months ago, is very much an issue as the U.S. election campaign wobbles, dawdles and stumbles towards the November vote.

It is sobering to think that Ronald Reagan, typically depicted as an absent-minded, chuckling old grandpa figure, was actually a sprightly 69 when he won the 1984 election. 

Eight years later, when he left the White House, he was still younger than Trump and Biden are now – and there were those who publicly diagnosed the Gipper with early-onset dementia in the latter years of his presidency. Indeed, Reagan died in 2004 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Here in the frozen north, we have been blessed (debate among yourselves) with an abundance of choir-boyish youthful leaders over the years. Of the 23 PMs since Confederation, nine have been in their 40s or younger when elected, and six in their 50s. The youngest was Joe Clark, who was 39 when he bested Pierre Trudeau in the 1979 election and served as PM for all of 273 days.

Canada’s oldest prime minister when elected was Dr. Charles Tupper, a father of Confederation from Nova Scotia, whose 68-day tenure in 1896 was the shortest in history. The “Ram of Cumberland” was 74 when he had his brief twirl in office, but lived to the ripe old age of 94, quite an achievement in those days.

Sir John A. Macdonald, the longest-serving PM, was 52 when he became Canada’s first head of government with Confederation in 1867. He was 76 when he died in office 24 years later – still younger than Biden and Trump are now.

Even “Uncle” Louis St. Laurent, who just looked like a very old man, was only 66 when he became Canada’s second francophone prime minister in 1948, serving nine years.

In Quebec, surprisingly, no premier has served into their 70s, with the youngest being Robert Bourassa, elected  in 1970 at age 37.

South of the border, though, it’s shaping up to be a battle of the geriatrics. If you’ve been following the American election, you might have noticed a shift in the discourse in recent weeks. Whereas Biden’s mental acuity has been called into question since his first presidential run in 2020, it is now Trump’s mental health that is becoming a topic of concern.

Whereas Trump was once considered to be crazy as a fox, he is now showing signs, according to various reports, of being clinically crazy, if you will.

For example, in a U.S. News report, former psychology professor John Gartner, founder of Duty to Warn, “a movement by medical professionals to draw attention to Trump’s cognitive health,” said Trump is exhibiting symptoms of “advanced dementia.”

Those symptoms include, most publicly and disturbingly, confusing his Republican nomination rival Nikki Haley with former Democratic House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi as the person responsible for security during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection he orchestrated and provoked.

Haley, grasping at a straw in a quixotic campaign, has challenged Trump to a cognitive test showdown. Trump said he has already “aced” a cognitive test, referring to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which measures various mental skills such as “attention and concentration, executive functions, memory, language and conceptual thinking.”

The Biden campaign, in an epic example of turnabout being fair play, last week launched a TV ad mocking Trump’s mental lapses, interspersing clips of his brain cramps – “We won all 50 states, right?” – with comments from his fellow Republicans, including Haley, questioning if he’s losing his marbles. 

One shudders at the prospect of the two candidates, total age 159 years, battling each other over the next 10 months to lead the United States into an uncertain future. 

At least here in Quebec and the rest of Canada, while people may question the policies and character of our political leaders, they don’t question their actual sanity.
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Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

Feb. 7, 2024

Two of the most barren streets in the city are to receive an intense greening over the summer.

The city announced a program on Jan. 26 to transform Rue Chabot and Ave. Plante to plant at least 90 trees along the busy streets that serve as connector to major arteries such as Rue Soumande and Boul. Pierre-Bertand. 

The work, to begin this summer and undertaken by private contractors, includes, according to a news release, “demineralisation of permeable surfaces, increase in vegetated areas and biodiversity and improving the management and infiltration of rainwater.”

The work will entail reducing the width of roadways and shortening pedestrian crossings. 

Coun. Marie-Josée Asselin, executive committee member responsible for sustainable development, said in the release, “Cities across the world are mobilizing to fight against heat islands and bring nature back to the city to benefit citizens’ quality of life, and Quebec is no exception. The particularity of these two projects is that they provide for a series of one-off interventions on certain favourable sections rather than a redevelopment of the street over its entire length.” 

A video on the city’s website describes the process and philosophy behind the greening projects, which are part of the city’s 2023 Green Economy Plan.

The work on Chabot and Plante follows other recent greening projects in Vanier, on Ave. Champagne and Rue Beaucage. 

Coun. Alicia Despins, who represents the Vanier district, said, “One of my priorities since [I first took office in] 2017 is increasing the canopy coverage of Vanier.” 

She said there will be a presentation at the Feb. 19 Vanier neighbourhood council meeting for residents interested in learning more about the project.

The Vanier district has the second least canopy coverage in the city, behind the Saint-Jean-Baptiste district in the central core.

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Photo by Peter Black

A tree grows in Vanier – one of the rare trees currently found on Ave. Plante. The city will be planting 90 this summer on the street as well as on Rue Chabot. 

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Feb. 7, 2024

There is uncertainty about the future of a small independent grocery store considered to be the heart of Ave. Cartier. 

Provisions Inc. has been closed for several weeks, with a sign on the door saying “Fermeture pour Travaux.” According to numerous reports, the closing is the result of the owners, a couple from France, abandoning the business, selling their house in Sillery and either returning to France or otherwise going incommunicado.

A report in the Journal de Québec said the couple, Christophe and Stéphanie Bouillon, closed up shop owing six employees two weeks’ pay.

The building, which has two upstairs apartments, is for sale for $4 million through a real estate firm. According to the Journal, the Bouillons are also in default of their mortgage on the building.

The Bouillons bought the business last year from the Drouin family that founded the grocery 75 years ago. Cousins Vincent and Bruno Drouin said at the time they sold the business because the younger generation of the family did not want to take over. 

The Drouins filed a legal claim in January to try to collect some $400,000 still owed them by the French buyers.

Besides being a thriving independent grocery, Provisions Inc. was a mini market during the summer months for local fruits and vegetables.

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Provisions Inc. has been closed and the building is for sale after French buyers apparently abandoned the business.

Photo by Peter Black

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Jan. 31, 2024

The opening of the new Central Québec School Board (CQSB) school on the South Shore has been postponed to September.

The plan had been to transfer students now attending St. Vincent Elementary in Sainte-Foy to the school now under construction, named New Liverpool Elementary, after the March break. St. Vincent was temporarily renamed New Liverpool in September.

The board informed teachers, staff and students’ families of the decision before the Christmas break, Stephen Burke, chair of the CQSB council of commissioners, told the QCT.

Burke, fresh from inaugurating a $17.3-million improvement project at the board’s school in Chibougamau, said, “Technical issues and tardiness in receiving essential elements of the heating system” of the new school forced the delay.

In September 2023, some 150 former St. Vincent students living in Quebec City found themselves transferred to other schools in the area, the largest share going to Everest Elementary. 

That left about 300 students at the former St. Vincent who are destined to attend the new school in the Saint-Romuald sector of Lévis. The new building, budgeted at around $30 million, is set on the site of a former religious centre and incorporates a pyramid-shaped structure that will be the school’s gym.

The opening of New Liverpool and the closing of St. Vincent are part of the board’s plan to consolidate its three high schools in the region – Quebec High School, St. Patrick’s High School and the high school section of Dollard-des-Ormeaux School in Shannon – into a new facility to be built on the site of St. Vincent on Ave. Wolfe in Sainte-Foy. 

Burke said, “The high school project is moving on according to schedule. We still are confident that it will be ready for the start of the 2027-2028 school year.”

On the website of the Société des Infrastructures du Québec, which manages large public sector construction projects in the province, the call for tenders for the new high school is slated for as early as July, with construction possibly starting this fall. The school is budgeted at up to $150 million.

Board officials say the St. Vincent building needs to be “disassembled,” rather than outright demolished, due to the presence of asbestos in the structure. That work could start in late June, once school is out for the very last time.

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New Liverpool Elementary School will open for classes in September. 

Image from CQSB 

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

Jan. 31, 2024

Quebec City’s tramway project may be stuck in the station, but the plan to replace the Réseau de Transport de la Capitale (RTC) gas-powered buses with electric ones is rolling along.

On Jan. 22, passengers boarded for the first time three 100 per cent electric buses on regular routes, as the city pursues the second stage of the pilot project that will eventually see a complete conversion of the RTC fleet.

RTC president and city executive committee member Maude Mercier Larouche said in a statement, “A major step has been taken today with the entry into service of our vehicles on regular routes, but the challenges remain for the future.”

She said electrification, “which adds a significant financial burden to public transport companies, must not be to the detriment of the service offered. To do this, public transport companies will need a sufficient, recurring and stable financial framework, and we will continue our discussions in this direction.”

The regular passenger service with the electric buses follows the first stage of the pilot project last year, which aimed to increase familiarity with the technology, conduct tests and train staff.

The three buses covered more than 29,000 kilometres over four different routes. According to a release, the buses drove “in varied conditions, namely summer and winter temperatures (minimum temperature of -17.5 degrees Celsius and maximum of 32.8 degrees Celsius), with and without load on board and on roads with different topographies. To this end, the tests carried out on several slopes in Quebec City were all successful.”

The trial also found the three buses could run for about 300 km and as much as 370 km before needing a charge, which meets the standard the RTC desired. The average time to recharge the vehicles was about three hours, according to the RTC. 

The buses have been rented from Novabus, a company owned by the Swedish giant Volvo, which has a manufacturing plant in Saint-Eustache. The RTC also has several hybrid buses operating in its fleet.

The RTC’s electric fleet, up to 100 vehicles, will be housed and maintained in a new building now under construction on Ave. Newton, the site of the former Simons store distribution centre.

The RTC called for tenders for the supply of electrical buses, and Novabus was the winning bidder. The first bus is to be delivered in 2026 and the second the year after.

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This 100 per cent electric bus is one of three the RTC has put into service on regular routes as part of an ongoing pilot project.  

Photo from Ville de Quebec

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Jan.31, 2024

Members of the House of Commons standing committee on health will be able to see the unredacted vaccine supply contract between the federal government and the now-defunct Quebec City-based Medicago biomedical research and manufacturing company.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Mark Holland confirmed the contract would be made available in compliance with the committee’s request in a motion passed at a Jan. 19 emergency meeting Conservative party members had requested. 

Alexandra Maheux, director of communications for the minister, said in an email to the QCT, “As always, we will uphold the request of the committee.” She said the committee clerk could provide further information on when the contract would be made available. 

Conservative MPs have been demanding to see the unedited contracts with Medicago to find out what happened with millions of federal dollars accorded to the company during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the race was on to develop a vaccine, the federal government invested $173 million in Medicago to develop its homegrown, plant-based serum. The company also got a $150-million non-refundable advance to speed along production of its vaccine. 

Medicago eventually developed a vaccine that was approved by Health Canada, but by then other manufacturers had captured the market as vaccination campaigns intensified. What’s more, the World Health Organization refused to approve the Medicago vaccine because tobacco giant Philip Morris had a stake in the project through Mitsubishi, the Japanese parent company. 

In February 2023, Mitsubishi shuttered Medicago, including a massive $245-million plant under construction in Beauport. Since then, the federal government has recovered some $40 million of its investment, and the company’s research and intellectual property has been secured and farmed out to other Canadian companies.

The Conservatives, in tandem with the Bloc Québécois, have been seeking answers from the government since The National Post reported in November “that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) wrote off $150 million last fiscal year for an ‘unfulfilled contract by a vendor’ with no expectation of recovering the money.”

Using a committee order normally reserved for emergency sessions, the Conservatives convened the Jan. 19 meeting which passed an amended motion, supported by Liberal and NDP members, to produce the unredacted document.

The Conservatives had wanted all documents related to Medicago to be made public without restrictions, with six days of committee hearings with government witnesses scheduled to study them.

The document, once produced, will be available for viewing by committee members for a week, but “under the supervision of the clerk and [on condition] that no personal mobile, electronic or recording devices of any kind be permitted in the room that week; and that no notes be taken out of the room.”

Charlesbourg–Haute-Saint-Charles MP Pierre Paul-Hus was a substitute member of the committee debating the motion. The Conservatives on the committee released a statement afterwards condemning the “cover-up coalition” for not releasing unredacted documents related to the federal government’s dealings with Medicago.

A Liberal member of the committee, Marcus Powlowski, criticized the Conservatives for calling an emergency meeting to discuss the Medicago dealings instead of what he described as more pressing issues, such as the opioid crisis or a women’s health study.

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The Medicago plant in Beauport was closed last February as it was nearing completion. 

Photo from QCT archives via CBC

Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com 

If there is a byproduct of Denis Coderre’s Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) leadership water-testing tour, it is that it may encourage other “quality” candidates to ponder a run.

We put “quality” in quotes because that is the diplomatic word interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay used in relation to Coderre’s potential bid: “For me, this is confirmation that people of quality are thinking about the leadership.”

Coderre, a one-term Montreal mayor, former longtime Liberal MP and former minister of various portfolios under prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, says he won’t decide until May whether or not he’ll run. So it’s too early to say whether an ABC (Anybody But Coderre) movement will emerge.

To date, few people have openly expressed an interest in leading the Libs back to the promised land, one they have ruled for about 70 of the past 120 years. 

Quebec Liberal MP Joël Lightbound (Louis-Hébert), who two years ago dimmed his rising star wattage with criticism of his government’s pandemic policy, was mulling the idea about a year ago. He recently told Radio-Canada he has not closed the door necessarily, but needs more time to reflect.

The other known interested party is Montreal MNA Fréderic Beauchemin, who recently returned to the Liberal caucus after he was suspended pending an investigation into a dispute with a party official.

Another rising star in the mix potentially is charismatic MNA Marwah Rizqy, the darling of several media commentators. Pregnant with her second child, she has said the timing is just not right for a contest that will take place next year.

As a sideshow that at least got the QLP in the news, Coderre and Rizqy traded barbs over the relative merit of their respective political careers.

Then there is federal Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne. According to a revealing report last week in The Hill Times, the energetic minister was not quite emphatic enough in denying his interest in the provincial Liberal leadership, and therefore he was declared to be interested.

 What he actually said when asked “if it would be accurate to say he’s not ruling out the possibility [of running]” was: “Listen, I have a job. I’m always amazed at people, people always ask me if I want another job. I have a job, and I’m pretty happy with that, and I’m pretty busy.”

Of course, leading Quebec’s Liberals is not just another job. In fact, one might argue if there ever was a job crying for a “quality” candidate of Champagne’s ilk, it’s Quebec Liberal leader at a time when the Coalition Avenir Québec government could be on the way out in the 2026 election, with no federalist alternative.

As former Liberal premier Jean Charest put it in a CBC Radio interview last week, the QLP “is the only federalist party in the National Assembly. … There needs to be a strong federalist voice that brings people together.”

Champagne is surely aware of the political stars aligning. With Justin Trudeau seemingly sincere about leading the Liberals into the 2025 federal election, he either faces exile to opposition if the Grits lose to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, or another stint as a minister in what, in the most optimistic scenario, would be another Liberal minority. 

Even if and when Trudeau decides to leave, Champagne’s odds to succeed him would be slim against the likes of Chrystia Freeland, Anita Anand, Sean Fraser, Mélanie Joly or Mark Carney. 

The QLP executive has decided the leadership vote will be in the spring of 2025, although it is not clear when the deadline for entering the race might be. 

It seems clear the QLP leadership would be Champagne’s for the asking, except, according to the Hill Times report, no one from the party has officially asked him yet.

While Champagne’s departure from the Trudeau cabinet would be a mighty blow, it might be seen as a sacrifice for the greater good of the country.

One thinks of Jean Lesage, who spent 13 years as a federal Liberal MP, including four years as minister, before taking on the leadership of the QLP in 1958, in opposition to Union Nationale premier Maurice Duplessis (comparisons to François Legault optional).

Lesage, as we know, ushered in the Quiet Revolution modernizing Quebec. Champagne has the same opportunity – to lead Quebec’s 21st-century transformation.

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