The Council of Ministers of Quebec

The the Council of Ministers of Quebec or Executive council exists under the terms of article 63 of the constitutional Loi of 1867 . It has in particular as a role to advise the Prime Minister and the ministers on the important files requiring a government decision, according to an day order determined by the Prime Minister.

Nomination

According to article 63, the Executive council of Quebec east made up of the people that the Lieutenant-governor judge in connection with naming. However, under the terms of constitutional conventions, it returns to the Prime Minister to indicate, among the Députés of its party elected with the National Assembly those and those which it wishes to see sitting at his council.

The Prime Minister can name a person at a post of minister without this one not being elected appointed. However, this person will have to try to be made elect on the first occasion. In the possibility where this minister would not succeed in being made elect member of the National Assembly, it would have the obligation to resign immediately. The 18 June 2002, it was thus for Mr David Levine, named by the Prime Minister Bernard Landry as deputy secretary with health.

Composition and rehandling

The executive council is composed of the Prime Minister and the ministers. However, other people can be invited by the Prime Minister to attend the meetings of the council. At present it is about the whip of the government, of the president of the caucus of the deputies of the ministerial party as well as four Secretaries of State.

The Prime Minister can revoke or relieve any of the members composing his cabinet without obtaining the authorization of the Lieutenant governor or the National Assembly. He is current to see a cabinet reshuffle with the semi-mandate. It is about a way for the Prime Minister of preparing his team for the next elections legislative.

Mandate

A minister can exert his functions and prerogatives so much and also a long time than the Prime Minister maintains it in his functions. It continues to exert its load until its successor is designated and sworn in. It is the same in the possibility where the party in power loses the elections and even if the minister in question underwent a personal defeat at the polls.

Roles and functions

The Executive council advises the Prime Minister and the other Ministers for the Cabinet in their decision making. However, it is allocated to the Prime Minister to make the final decision and this same if all the members of the Executive council are in discredit. Several decisions taken by the Government of Quebec are actually decisions of the Prime Minister alone.

Even if the Prime Minister and the ministers sit like deputies with the National Assembly, when they meet in council they exert the executive power. However, in our British parliamentary mode there exists what one calls the ministerial responsibility. This rule obliges the Prime Minister and the ministers to return accounts of their management and their administration before the Parliament.

Vote in front of the National Assembly

A deputy exerting the load of minister is above all, when it sits at the Parliament, a deputy representing a district. Consequently, it must vote on the bills and motions which are subjected to the vote of the Room either by the government, or by the other political parties. There exists on this subject a convention which one calls ministerial solidarity which stipulates that a minister cannot vote against the government. Legally, it could do it, however one can imagine the consequences of such a disavowal.

Current composition