Philippe Couillard is setting Quebec back 10, 20 or even 30 years with the latest offers to public sector employees.
That’s the assessment made by CAQ leader François Legault following new contract proposals made Friday that include lower entry wages for nurses and other job categories.
One of the issues on that table is Quebec’s salary negotiations and the simplification of a pay-ladder structure; the province is proposing to lower entry-level nursing wages.
The provincial government formally announced Friday it will make salary concessions in its negotiations with public sector workers, offering salary hikes after year one of the new contract, instead of a two-year freeze.
The government also offered the union collective an extra $500 million, but in exchange wanted to cut the number of pay scales for union workers down to fewer than 30. There are currently as many as 150
different employee pay ladders.
The common front of unions rejected the offer, saying they had no interest in restructuring pay scales.
They said at first glance, it appears 18,000 employees would end up being paid less than their current income.
Legault said he also thinks this proposal makes no sense and has asked Couillard to withdraw the offer.
He said the proposal is setting Quebec back decades, bringing the province back to a time when orphan clauses were financed on the backs of new employees while granting increases to workers who had more seniority.
The right-of-centre party, which has openly talked about cutting the civil service, saying Saturday that cuts to civil service are wrong.
“We have to increase salaries at least cover inflation for our teachers,” said Legault.
That shift surprised political analyst Bruce Hicks.
“(It) is not actually a fiscally conservative move. That more seems to be tapping into the fact that the Liberals are unpopular with unions and they want to appeal to the unions,” he said.
Legault brought up the issue during the CAQ’s general council meeting, where 400 CAQ members are gathering this weekend in Laval.
CAQ rebrands
The meeting was also an opportunity for the party to show of its new logo, which the CAQ is calling a new start.
At one time, the party said it wouldn't hold a referendum for 10 years, but now Legault – a former PQ cabinet minister – is saying separation is completely off the table.
“I think it's the beginning of a new era,” he said. “We saw with the federal election of October 19 that more than 80 per cent of Quebecers want to have a project within Canada.”
Another change is their logo. The former rainbow colours, which symbolized the CAQ was a coalition of Quebecers with different views, is now gone.
It has been replaced with a single blue, aimed at showing the party is united.
“Now we are not anymore a coalition of people coming from different origins, we are all CAQuists,” said CAQ president Stephane Le Bouyonnec.
Hicks believes in spite of the rebranding, the CAQ is still far from being a threat to the ruling Liberals.
“I think they're counting on the PQ collapsing and they become the alternative to the Liberals and eventually people want to throw the party out and they turn to the alternative,” he said.
The CAQ will receive an idea of where their support stands on Monday night, when there are four bi-elections held in the province.
The party, however, isn't expecting big results from that night, and said it is looking more towards two years down the road and the next general election.
With a report from La Presse Canadienne
