MONTREAL -- The Quebec Community Groups Network is speaking out against the province's secretariat for English-speaking Quebecers.
The secretariat has been holding consultations with English-speaking communities for the past six months, but the QCGN says the talks didn't go far enough.
The QCGN described the talks as mostly a cosmetic exercise, and are particularly unhappy about the province's religious symbols ban (Bill 21) and the bill abolishing school boards (Bill 40).
The secretariat held about a dozen consultations starting in October involving a total of about 250 people.
The QCGN found the consultations coupled with the government invoking closure to pass the laws that the English-speaking communities didn't want sent a mixed message.
"The consultations did not address the fundamental issues that the community is worried about," said QCGN's Sylvia Martin LaForge. "While the community worries about underfunding and underrepresentation, the broader issues over the loss of our institutions, the loss of our representation, are fundamental and the consultations did not address that."
CAQ parliamentary secretary for English-speaking Quebecers Christopher Skeete said the QCGN is mixing up two issues.
"There's the reality of being an English-speaking Quebecer every day, and there's whether or not, as a citizen, I agree with this position from the government or that position from the government," said Skeete. "On any given day, we can analyze how people feel being an English-speaking Quebecer which was the mandate of the consultation versus whether or not some people in the English-speaking community agree with whether or not we should be removing school board elections. I think you have to really separate the individual file from the overall experience of being an English-speaking Quebecer."
The provincial budget is scheduled to be tabled Tuesday and Skeete added that there are line items that will benefit the English-speaking community.
