New Parti Québécois government: what to expect in the first 100 days

A minority government that will have to work with the opposition

With 59 MNAs, the Parti Québécois forms a minority government (a majority requires 64 seats), which means it will have to work with the other parties, issue by issue, to pass its bills—something the Premier has committed to doing.

Among the Premier’s first decisions was the appointment of his new chief of staff: Nadine Koussa, who until recently chaired the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse. She will lead the Premier’s office.

The timeline for the coming weeks

• Swearing-in of government and opposition MNAs. All 127 elected members must take the oath before they can sit. The Premier has requested a legal opinion on whether the ceremony can be held without the Lieutenant Governor. He wants to redirect the funds allocated to that office to the fight against homelessness. [Date announced: to be completed]
• Appointment of a smaller cabinet. Its composition will be unveiled in the coming weeks, and it will have fewer ministers than previous governments (a maximum of 28 members). Until then, the Fréchette government remains in charge.
• Return of the National Assembly. It is tentatively scheduled for November 17.
• A potential first bill: One of the government’s first bills will aim to freeze the salaries of MNAs and senior executives of Crown corporations “until the budget is balanced.”
• An economic and financial update will be tabled this fall.

Priorities for the first 100 days

Here are the key takeaways from the Premier’s announcements

Homelessness: emergency funding and a major summit

This will be the first measure announced by the Premier. The death of a woman in an encampment this week drew a reaction from the Premier, who said he was making “the fight against homelessness a personal matter.”

What was announced:

• emergency funding available in the short term. “These resources will be used in particular for emergency housing and winter shelters.”
• A major summit bringing together all homelessness stakeholders around the same table.
• More broadly, the government intends to cut the number of people experiencing homelessness in half within 4 years, with a $1 billion investment.

CORPIQ’s take: property owners are often the first to witness a deteriorating situation (late rent, isolation, deterioration of the unit). CORPIQ will ask to take part in the summit to present its prevention proposals, including a contact point that property owners could alert in situations of vulnerability.

Red tape: a Secretariat for regulatory relief

What was announced:

• the “very rapid” creation of a Secretariat for Government Efficiency and Regulatory Relief, tasked with cutting paperwork and red tape. It will carry out a line-by-line review of programs and regulations to reduce spending deemed unnecessary and reinvest in direct services to the public.
• An IT audit: an audit of all government IT projects, launched in the first weeks of the mandate.
• The Premier says he wants to ease the burden on municipalities by “removing layers of bureaucracy.”

CORPIQ’s take: this is one of the things we have been advocating for: regulatory relief, particularly to make it easier to renovate the rental housing stock.

Immigration: a new plan

What was announced: a new immigration plan, tabled within the first 100 days, with lower thresholds that will take regional realities into account.

The targets: temporary residents would be brought down to a range of 200,000 to 250,000 people; permanent immigration would go from about 45,000 to some 35,000 people per year.

CORPIQ’s take: The situation varies from one market to another; CORPIQ will monitor changes in vacancy rates and government announcements.

A first official meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is also expected soon. The two leaders spoke by phone the day after PSPP’s election, notably to discuss homelessness and immigration.

(Parti Québécois press release - Paul St-Pierre Plamondon presents his priorities for the first 100 days of a Parti Québécois government (in French) + Premier’s press conference)

What CORPIQ is doing

CORPIQ has congratulated the Premier-designate and requested a meeting with his team once its members have been appointed. As a next step, we will also reach out to members of the National Assembly.