Quebec Premier Pauline Marois responds to second opposition questions as its leader Francois Legault, left, looks down, Thursday, June 6, 2013 at the legislature in Quebec City.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
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As the National Assembly prepares to recess next week, Premier Pauline Marois will want to put this session behind her.
Major debates have been postponed until the fall as the Parti Québécois takes the summer to regroup and give new life to a government that appears to have lost its bearings.
Ms. Marois' minority government has been struggling, unable to push forward any major piece of legislation that it tabled during the winter-spring session.
The Premier has back-pedalled on several promises, bowed to powerful business lobby groups and tightened spending on vital programs, which has angered core constituents and disappointed social and environmental groups.
This has led to a decline for Ms. Marois in public opinion polls and a disapproval rating that, only nine short months after taking office, matches predecessor Liberal leader Jean Charest's unenviable result he obtained after nine years in power.
A major shift will be required in the coming months if the PQ government hopes to get back on its feet and revive aspirations of winning a majority government in the next election. The next vote will not likely take place until the spring of 2014 after the tabling of a budget where Ms. Marois will proclaim in all her glory the triumph of attaining a zero deficit.
But until then the PQ must come up with a strategy that will compensate the heavy political price it has paid for its stubborn desire of producing a balanced budget. The core element of the PQ plan will be geared at responding to what Ms. Marois believes is Quebeckers' top priority: the economy.
Several policies are being planned for the fall to pave the way for the next election. A new industrial strategy will set the government's job creation priorities in several key sectors. A revamped energy plan will underscore another major initiative involving the electrification of the province's public transportation network.
A new agency will be created to oversee the awarding of transportation contracts and clean up a part of government that has been plagued with several allegations of corruption.
Other initiatives will include a new research and development policy which may include additional funding for universities. A foreign trade policy was also being designed to attract more private investments to the province.
Ms. Marois may also give serious consideration to a cabinet shuffle in order to mark her efforts at relaunching her government on stronger footing.
While focusing on the economy, the PQ is seeking to avoid controversy over some of it most contentious legislation. Debate over the secular charter – or 'Charter of Quebec Values' as it is now being called – has been postponed until next fall. The government was buying time in order to defuse what may eventually become an explosive issue.
Debate on another controversial issue involving the reform of the French Language Charter has also been delayed until the fall. Given the compromises Ms. Marois has indicated her government was willing to make in order to receive the backing of the Coalition Avenir Quebec to ensure passage of Bill 14, the language bill will likely become nothing more than a pale shadow of what party members had demanded.
The PQ is gambling that its shortcoming with supporters on the secular charter and the language bill will be widely overshadowed by the Charbonneau Commission on corruption.
The commission will table a preliminary report next January but not before it will have examined the awarding of provincial government road construction contracts that the PQ expects will be devastating to the Quebec Liberal party and its newly elected leader Philippe Couillard.
However, if the strategy of projecting the PQ as the party of integrity and economic prosperity fails to produce any concrete results in public opinion polls next fall, there will be little time left for Ms. Marois to reverse voter apathy toward her government in time for the next election.
Rhéal Séguin covers provincial politics from Quebec City.
Rhéal Séguin