For lucid Quebec is a Manifeste signed by twelve personalities Québécois are, of which the ex- Prime Minister Lucien Bouchard. Published the October 19th 2005, the text wants to be a “cry of awakening” vis-a-vis the problems which watch for Quebec of tomorrow, of which demographic decline and Asian competition, and denounces the omnipresence of the status quo. Its conclusions raised a controversy in the Québécois population and a savage opposition on behalf of the mediums altermondialists, ecologists and, more largely, of the Québécois left which have, as an answer, published the Manifeste for interdependent Quebec.

Projecting points

The text of proclamation opens on this sentence: “Whereas our future is threatened by the demographic decline and world competition, Quebec cannot be allowed to be the counterpart of the status quo. ”

The authors underline four problems to which made Quebec or will have to face:

  • economic delay: according to the authors, Quebec belongs to the least rich 25% among the province S and State S of North America, and its economy grows less quickly than that of the provinces and Neighboring states.

  • the weight of the national Debt: the government of Quebec devotes 16% of its expenditure to the debt servicing, that is to say more than any other province.
  • the demographic Decline: always according to the authors, Quebec is on the point of living the demographic decline fastest of all the industrialized countries except for the Japan. Not only the ageing of the population will have an major impact on the economy, but Quebec will vera its demographic weight to decrease in North America: “in 40 years, the 7,8 million Inhabitant of Quebec will be surrounded by nearly 1,2 billion people, speaking for the majority English and/or Spanish. ”
  • Asian competition: “This demographic deceleration occurs at worst the moment which is, at one time when the Western countries have to deal with a new competition coming from the Asian countries, all particuilèrement the giants Chinese and Indian. In 10,20 years, which will we manufacture, us, Québécois, better than the Chinese and the Indians? ”

Although not offering a miracle solution (“We do not have a program to sell”, defend the authors), the proclamation advances all the same “some tracks which it would be necessary to urgently explore”:

  • the lightening of the burden of the national debt;

  • an massive investment in education and training;
  • thaw of the school fees;
  • the creation of a mode of refunding of the student loans proportional to the income;
  • the installation of measurements to incite the Inhabitants of Quebec to have a command of several languages;
  • a rise in the tariffs of electricity of Hydro-Quebec, of which a part could be devoted to the refunding of the national debt;
  • a major reform of the system of taxation, which rather privileges the taxation of consumption than those on the income;
  • the creation of a mode of guaranteed minimum wages; and
  • a larger opening to the Private sector.

Some of these measurements, in particular the opening of the door to private, are likely to be badly received on behalf of the Québécois company, warn the authors: “Of others which did to us of the proposals for this kind in the last years. One hastened to nail them with the pilori, to go up against them of the lawsuits of intention without never taking the trouble to study their ideas objectively. Why does one show the large Québécois firms of all the evils when they want to invest on our premises, for example in a public-private Partenariat, whereas one enorgueillit their international successes? If a Social democrat country as as the France has recourse to deprived to finance the construction of its infrastructures, one sees badly according to which logic Quebec would be deprived to make in the same way. ”

In fact, the proclamation denounces the status quo and the doctrinaire approach, refractory with the changes: “the least evolution in the operation of the State, the least daring project, the least call to the responsibility, the least modification in our comfortable practices of life are accommodated by raised shields, an end not-to receive, at best by the indifference. ” The Syndicat S are particularly pointed finger: “At present, the Québécois social speech is dominated by lobbies of all kinds, of which the great trade unions, which monopolized the label “progressist” for being better opposed to the changes than imposes the news gives. ”

The authors defend themselves well to want to be caught some with the Québécois model: “it is not at all necessary to throw our model of company to the dustbin to face these challenges. Only, the world changed and it is necessary for us to adapt to new realities. ”

Finally, they stress that neither the abolition of the “Fiscal imbalance” nor the sovereignty of Quebec constitute a panacea: “whatever the choice of the Inhabitants of Quebec, the challenges which confront Quebec will remain whole. ”

Inhabitants of Quebec: lucid or interdependent?

To the beginning of the year 2007 was carried out by CROP and the Canadian Circle ( Canadian Club ) a survey aiming at determining if the Inhabitants of Quebec were more lucid or interdependent . Here the principal elements which are come out from it:

  1. a majority estimates “" that Quebec must be most generous possible in its programs sociaux" ”;

  2. half of the guarantors (49%) “considers that the company would go better if the governments played a more important part”. It is about the strongest rate in Canada;
  3. 57% believes that “the State has also a paramount role to play to facilitate " the access to the services" , for " the distribution of the richness and for the framing of the économie" ”;
  4. 83% is opposed to rise fresh of electricity;
  5. Seulement the third is in favor of a thaw of the university school fees;
  6. the young people (15 to 24 years) are even more interdependent that the older generations.

The results of this survey obviously disappointed the president of the house of survey CROP, Alain Giguère, but rather delighted Francoise David, spokesperson woman of Quebec interdependent and co-signatory of the Manifeste for interdependent Quebec .

Signatories

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