Quebec Government's Bill 61
Workers' Opposition to Use of Pandemic and Restart of Economy to Strengthen Arbitrary Powers of the State
- Pierre Chénier -
Health care workers protest outside Premier Legault's office in Quebec
City, May 19, 2020, demanding an end to government's use of arbitrary
powers to violate their rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Legault government on June 3 tabled Quebec Bill 61 -- An
Act to restart Quebec's economy and to mitigate the consequences of the
public health emergency declared on 13 March 2020 because of the
COVID-19 pandemic.[1] The
bill's stated aim is to mitigate the consequences of
the public health emergency by fast-tracking for two years the
construction of 202 public infrastructure projects such as schools,
seniors' residences, road work and public transit. The bill gives the
government the option to decree the building of additional public or
private projects. Quebec Premier François Legault said the
powers of the bill,
which have been widely denounced as arbitrary, are critical to
re-launching the Quebec economy after weeks of pandemic-induced
shutdowns.
 As
a whole, the bill is an attempt to use the pandemic and reopening of
the economy as a pretext to strengthen the arbitrary powers of the
state and further deprive working people of any say whatsoever on
matters of concern. It also further denies the National Assembly and
its members any legislative power, as all decision-making power is
concentrated in the hands of the ministers in the service of narrow
private interests. Bill 61 grants the government the power to extend
the public health emergency outside the Public Health Act and any oversight by the public and even members of the National Assembly.
The declaration of a public health emergency on March 13
gave arbitrary power to the government executive to cancel all
negotiated agreements with health care and social service workers. The
executive has used the power to unilaterally change public sector
working conditions. The indefinite extension of this arbitrary power is
a big attack on
workers and their rights and must not pass!
In addition to the attack on public sector workers, Bill
61 grants all power to the government executive to cancel and violate
existing laws and regulations under the hoax of speeding up the
reopening of the economy. Bill 61 allows the government executive to
violate legal provisions in the Public Health Act, the Environment
Quality Act, the Expropriation Act, and the Act Respecting Contracting by Public Bodies and in addition gives immunity from prosecution to government ministers and others using the bill's provisions.
Bill 61 in effect grants the executive the power to
eliminate at will environmental regulations, regulations regarding
expropriation of the property of individuals for economic projects, and
regulations regarding the awarding of public contracts to private
companies to build public infrastructure projects along with immunity
from prosecution for
wrongdoings. This grab for greater executive power must not be allowed!
A crisis such as the pandemic must not be used to attack
the people, violate their rights and shut them out even more violently
from the decision-making power. Working people must assess what is
going on and step up their fight for empowerment so that the problems
caused by the pandemic can be resolved in their favour, not that of the
rich. The pandemic shows that a new direction of the economy is
necessary, a direction decided by working people and under their
control.
The people demand this regressive bill be withdrawn
immediately. Those who have tabled this anti-worker and anti-social
bill and are pushing for its passage to give the government executive
even greater arbitrary powers must be declared unfit to rule and
removed from public office.
Manoeuvring to Push Through Bill 61
Bill 61 was introduced a mere nine days before the
official day of adjournment of the Quebec National Assembly on June 12.
Premier François Legault, then President of the Treasury Board
Christian Dubé and other spokespersons of the Cabinet arrogantly
demanded that the bill be hurriedly passed before adjournment.
Even though the Legault government holds a majority of seats in the
National Assembly, the bill required the unanimous consent of all three
opposition parties and the independent members of the National Assembly
for the principle of the bill to be adopted and allowed immediately to
go into committee and subsequent readings. A procedural
rule in the National Assembly requires unanimous consent when a bill is
introduced after mid-May before the summer adjournment.
In an effort to gain the unanimous consent of the
members of the National Assembly, the Legault government tabled 18
amendments the day before the summer adjournment. Legault's effort to
"soften" the bill failed to win the unanimous consent needed to rush
the bill through in principle. The opposition of the people to Bill 61
outside the
National Assembly was so intense many commentators said it would have
been suicidal for the other parties and members to agree to this
manoeuvre of the Legault government. It is likely that when the
National Assembly reconvenes in September the Legault government will
use its majority of seats to adopt the bill despite the
people's mounting opposition to it.
Note
1. On June 21, Quebec Premier François Legault
reshuffled his Cabinet, once again using the pandemic as a pretext for
stepping up the anti-social offensive against the people. To find out
more about this read Legault Government's Shameless Grandstanding -- TML Weekly, July 4, 2020.
This article was published in
Number 47 - July 7, 2020
Article Link:
Quebec Government's Bill 61: Workers' Opposition to Use of Pandemic and Restart of Economy to Strengthen Arbitrary Powers of the State - Pierre Chénier
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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