The radio station CHIP-FM held a candidates’ forum at the Pontiac Conference Centre in Fort-Coulonge. Five candidates, including Québec solidaire (QS) candidate Mike Owen Sebagenzi, incumbent Liberal Party of Quebec (QLP) MNA André Fortin, Conservative Party of Quebec (CPQ) candidate Terrence Watters, CAQ candidate Corinne Canuel-Jolicœur and Green Party of Quebec (GPQ) candidate Pierre Cyr were present at the bilingual event.

Topics discussed at the forum included the economy, healthcare, education, Bill 96 and more.

Heath care

Starting with healthcare, Fortin highlighted that the lack of nurses in the Outaouais region was a unique problem of the region due to the presence of Ontario across the border. He therefore called for a “made in the Outaouais solution”.

“If you talk to Heritage College’s director, he will tell you that a nurse finishes her program at Heritage and goes . . .

straight to Ontario, and never sees the inside of a Quebec hospital or clinic,” said Fortin.

Fortin went on to say that nurses and healthcare workers should receive proper treatment and pay in order to retain them in the Outaouais. He pointed to his introduction of legislation that would mandate lower patient to healthcare worker ratios during the previous sitting of the National Assembly as evidence of his commitment to this issue.

The CPQ’s Watters called to adopt a public and private healthcare system along the lines of Sweden and France, something that was attacked by all other candidates in the forum, (more on privatization in healthcare on page 3).

Watters was also directly asked about the CPQ’s opposition to COVID prevention measures, and in particular what measures he opposed and what he thought was necessary to prevent the spread of the virus.

Watters responded by saying he had no idea which measures were effective and which ones were not, though he did say the curfews were maybe not necessary. He said that the government should have received push back on many of the measures they continued six months after the start of the pandemic.

Canuel-Jolicœur of the CAQ said that the government had ongoing plans to resolve the healthcare crisis after decades of underfunding and the centralization of the system. She stated the CAQ had already granted the Outaouais special status and that nurses wages would be raised in order to be competitive with Ontario.

Cyr of the GPQ said that the whole healthcare system needed to be reevaluated over a number years in order to be fixed properly.

Sebagenzi of QS accused the current CAQ and past Liberal governments as causing the crisis.

“Regarding our healthcare system, it’s important to understand where we are coming from. We had one government who did incredible austerity and cut the funding and another one that has a [record] of inaction,” said Sebagenzi, who also promised the introduction of clinics that would be open 24 hours a day, a better healthcare information system and better working conditions and wages for healthcare workers.

Economic development

Moving on to economic development, the candidates offered different visions of how they see regions’ paths forwards.

Watters framed his vision around the exploitation of natural resources, particularly lumber. Watters said that government subsidization was not necessary, as the local demand for lumber was sufficient to attract the private investment required to build the mills.

He also highlighted that migration to the region from cities would help the area.

“The pandemic has brought on one good thing and one good thing only. People are being able to work from home,” said Watters. “This will bring families to the Pontiac.”

Cyr said the Green Party’s priority would be to localize the economy as much as possible, focusing on agriculture and the forestry industry.

“We’re carrying wood 250 km away from here instead of treating it in the area, which is such a shame for all kinds of reasons,” said Cyr.

He also said he would focus his attention on supporting local initiatives, a sentiment that was shared by the CAQ candidate.

Along with promising to work with local leaders, Canuel-Jolicœur outlined what she viewed as what the CAQ had already delivered for the Pontiac.

“We can not have a great economy without high speed internet and the CAQ did that, we are now the leader in Canada in high speed internet,” said Canuel-Jolicœur. She added that full cell phone coverage of the area is also required, which she said that CAQ is in the process of delivering.

One of Canuel-Jolicœur’s remarks also drew ire from Fortin.

“We have a very unique riding, we have Aylmer which is very dynamic and the rest of the Pontiac which struggled with the crisis of forestry,” said Canuel-Jolicœur.

When it was Fortin turn to speak, he fired back by saying:

“There’s one kind of talk that I really don’t appreciate. It is when somebody says ‘oh we have a really dynamic sector in Aylmer and a really struggling sector in the Pontiac’,” said Fortin. “This isn’t 2008 anymore. We did struggle when the forestry shut down but there are so many people who reinvented themselves into small business owners who put their life savings on the line. “

Fortin reiterated his support for policies that would make it easier for people who are over 60 to come back to work, as he said the labour shortage poses one of the biggest barriers to economic growth, which inturn drew criticism from Sebagenzi.

“I’m glad Mr. Fortin agrees with me that we need to address the labour shortage, but I’m disappointed he wants to address it by trying to make elderly folks work. I want to do it by regionalizing immigration because there are young people and young families that want to come here, work here and spend here.”

Fortin said he agreed with the need for immigration, yet he stood by his support for policies that incentivize those over 60 to reenter the workforce.

Education

The next major topic discussed was education.

Canuel-Jolicœur said the CAQ has made education their priority and had increased the education budget each of the last four years that they have been in power. She mentioned this commitment would continue should the CAQ be reelected.

Pierre Cyr said that the education system needed to be totally be reevaluated in order to make sure investments in the system were effective.

“You need to look at everything and see what makes sense,” said Cyr

Sebagenzi said that investing in French language institutions would be a priority for a QS government. He also mentioned that they would invest in schools and work towards better working conditions for teachers and those working in the education system.

On education Fortin criticized the current government’s spending priorities.

“I’ll give you two projects that cost the same price, said Fortin. “The government’s tunnel in Quebec City under the St. Lawrence River costs about $6 billion, while renovating every school in the province costs $6 billion. Governing is about choices.”

Watters said his priority would be to improve graduation rates, and that the CPQ would empower schools to make decisions over the government.

Bill 96

On Bill 96, the forum saw some heated responses from the candidates.

Starting with Sebagenzi, he said that QS supported some parts of the bill and is opposed other parts, despite the party as a whole voting for the legislation last spring.

He said a good part of the bill was that it prevents companies from demanding that its employees speak English, which he said helped francophone immigrants, but disagreed with the six-month requirement for immigrants to communicate with the provincial government in French and the lack of recognition of Indigenous languages.

“The worst part of the bill is the way the CAQ has been pointing fingers and blaming immigrants and English-speaking communities for the decline of French,” said Sebagenzi.

Fortin was far sterner on the bill.

“It has massive impact on English speaking Quebecers and saying the contrary is saying people are fools,” said Fortin.

Fortin asserted that Bill 96 will affect access to healthcare, small business, legal protections from search and seizure, access to courts and the future of English language education, particularly Heritage College.

Watters said that Bill 96 should have never passed and blamed the decline of French in the province on the failure to integrate non-francophone immigrants.

Watters also accused the Liberals of flip flopping on the bill and said that the CPQ would repeal it should they be elected.

Canuel-Jolicœur said that she supported the bill because the French language needs to be protected given large-scale immigration into the province and stated that it would have no impact on the anglophone community. She stated that anglophones would still be able to receive services and be educated in English and pointed out that municipalities with anglophone majorities are exempt from the municipal requirements of the bill.

“I have an anglophone husband, its very important to protect anglophones. I will be there for you”, said Canuel-Jolicœur.

Cyr used the opportunity to push for a proportional voting system and said the issue with Bill 96 was that it was passed solely by the CAQ, without any input or collaboration from other parties. He expressed opposition to the bill but emphasized that French needed to be protected.

The candidates also took various other questions specific to each candidate, as well local questions concerning the expanding the role of pharmacists in delivering healthcare services, funding cultural production, the future of agrotourism and more.

You can listen to the entire forum on chipfm.com.

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