The very first bill of the new premier, Christine Fréchette, will aim to renew the notwithstanding clause for Bill 96, which strengthens the Charter of the French Language.
The information, first reported by “La Presse”, was confirmed by The Canadian Press on Tuesday.
The notwithstanding clause, which aims to shield a law from legal challenges, must be renewed every five years. Since Bill 96 was passed in May 2022, the premier is therefore getting a head start.
The bill is expected to be tabled on Wednesday. This legislative initiative will also force Liberal leader Charles Milliard to commit. In recent weeks, he has been equivocating on his position regarding the use of the notwithstanding clause for Bill 96.
The National Assembly will resume its work on Tuesday after a three-week break that allowed the new prime minister to take office.
She will launch a new parliamentary session by delivering a speech of about 40 minutes in the Red Room in which she will outline her priorities for the coming weeks.
The elected representatives will only sit for 17 days; the session is scheduled to end on June 12. The Assembly will then be dissolved when general elections are called, towards the end of August.
Several bills are on the agenda
Fréchette therefore has very little time to make her mark. She has already announced that she will recall all the bills that were left unaddressed during the prorogation.
She also promised to table new bills on violence against women and the redrawing of the electoral map, and to take action on the price of gasoline and groceries, among other things.
On Wednesday, elected officials will begin the parliamentary committee study of bills 22 (welcome tax), 23 (forced hospitalizations) and 24 (fraudulent use of a person’s image).
Bill 22, which was spearheaded by former Municipal Affairs Minister Geneviève Guilbault, proposes to end the “double welcome tax” for common-law partners in the event of separation.
Bill 23, tabled by Health Minister Sonia Bélanger, aims to relax the criteria for forcibly hospitalizing a person in crisis.
This is the promised overhaul of Law P-38, the Act respecting the protection of persons whose mental state presents a danger to themselves or to others, adopted more than 25 years ago.
To launch the study of Bill 24, well-known Quebec television host Marie-Claude Barrette will share her experience as a victim of fraud.
A dozen other pieces of government legislation are expected to be recalled, including the controversial Bill 1 of Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette which would create a Quebec constitution.
The resumption of work will give more visibility to the opposition parties, who will seek to intensify their attacks against the CAQ government.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
