PQ plans anti-corruption push when legislature opens

DRUMMONDVILLE, Que. – The newly elected Parti Quebecois government plans to table major anti-corruption legislation soon after the legislature opens next week.

Premier Pauline Marois says she will not wait for the results of an ongoing public inquiry to make changes to the rules for tendering public contracts.

Soon after the inagugural speech next Wednesday, the government will table corruption-fighting legislation that should be easy to pass despite its minority status.

The government plans to make it more difficult for companies linked to wrongdoing to win public contracts, reportedly not just in the construction sector but also in areas like information technology.

The increased focus on fighting corruption comes after a bumpy first few weeks in office.

The PQ was forced to backpedal on several files after statements from ministers on education policy, taxation, language and shale-gas development. With only a minority, the PQ appears to face a particularly intense struggle to get its fiscal policies through the legislature.

The party has promised to scrap a $200 health tax — but it hasn’t won any opposition support for its planned tax hikes that would replace the lost revenue.

Marois admitted it had been a turbulent first few weeks in office. She brushed it off as the result of the PQ moving so quickly to keep its election promises.

One such promise is to toughen the province’s language laws. The PQ has suggested it could extend enrolment restrictions at English educational institutions to junior colleges and, perhaps, even to daycares; it has also talked about applying language rules to smaller businesses.

Marois says she’ll table the legislation she has promised to table and, once that’s done, she will be open to suggestions from the opposition. If other parties wind up completely blocking the language bill, Marois says, Quebecers will know whom to blame.

She says new language laws are required to halt the decline of French following the latest federal census figures.

The latest figures show that the number of Montrealers who use only French at home has dropped seven percentage points over the last decade, to 39 per cent. However, that change stems from immigration and urban sprawl — not necessarily from a shift towards English.