QUEBEC — Call it the revenge of the independents and the small political parties.
As work at the National Assembly crawls to a finish Friday, several key pieces of legislation remain in limbo because a few MNAs — cleverly using rules of procedure — have managed to gum up the process.
Add to that a flurry of last-minute pieces of legislation and it now seems likely that the majority of the 19 unfinished bills risk dying on the order paper as Quebec plunges into an election campaign in the coming weeks.
Two MNAs in particular have chosen to make their mark politically and not in the way the Coalition Avenir Québec government and opposition parties appreciated.
Top of the list is Saint-Jérome MNA Youri Chassin.
A former CAQ MNA who quit the party in 2024, saying it had lost it way, Chassin in the last few weeks has led a one-man crusade against Bill 3, which aims to modify the electoral map.
Last month, Chassin sided with Quebec’s chief electoral office, which insists redrawing the electoral map is its job as an independent agency of the legislature.
At the heart of the debate was a decision by the independent Commission de la représentation électorale (CRE) to eliminate two ridings: one in the east end of Montreal and one in the Gaspé and create two new ones in the Laurentians and central Quebec.
The CRE bases is decisions on demographics and normally what it says goes. But this time the government tried to go over its head because some MNAs feel the Gaspé region will lose out in the change of the map.
Together, all the parties presented Bill 3, which would preserve the existing ridings but add the new ones, increasing the number of MNAs from 125 to 127.
Enter Chassin, who now sits as an independent. He stood alone after Bill 3 was presented in early June to oppose the unanimous consent required to fast-track the legislation into law.
With the National Assembly forced to follow the usual process for legislation, Chassin has waged a one-man battle for the last two days at the committee stage to delay the adoption process. It has not made him any friends.
“I am totally burned out,” Chassin said in an interview with The Gazette after emerging from a marathon morning session Tuesday trying to get the bill changed. “I will sleep probably next week.
“It’s a game of parliamentary tricks and procedures.”
He concedes his results have been modest. In two days of committee work, Chassin has managed to get one clause of the bill amended. The bill has 10.
The rest of his proposals were voted down by the combined votes of the CAQ, Liberal and Québec solidaire MNAs who all support the bill.
Chassin, however, said he feels justified and has denounced what he considers the unprecedented government meddling in the electoral process.
“For me it’s the principle,” Chassin said. “I think there is something to be said about the independence of an electoral map. We don’t mess with that.”
The minister responsible for the bill, Jean-François Roberge, has sat patiently through the process, which other MNAs called the “Youri Chassin show.”
Quebec Conservative MNA Maïté Blanchette Vézina held up a bill on banning energy drinks, arguing there had been insufficient consultation on the matter. Francis Vachon / Postmedia News
Another who has not scored brownie points with her colleagues is the former CAQ MNA for Rimouski, Maïté Blanchette Vézina.
Dropped from the CAQ cabinet in 2025 and a harsh critic of former premier François Legault, she initially sat as independent but now sits as the lone Quebec Conservative MNA.
Here again, her freewheeling status spelled trouble in the government’s legislative agenda — specifically Bill 9 putting in place a widely supported ban on the sale of energy drinks to kids under the age of 16.
Calls to ban energy drinks for children grew in the wake of the 2024 death of 15-year-old Zachary Miron, who died after a Red Bull he drank interacted with his ADHD medication.
Like Chassin, Blanchette Vézina blocked the fast-track adoption of the bill, saying not enough consultation had taken place.
Until Friday, the bill was in jeopardy because the Conservatives were holding out for more hearings from interested parties.
In the end, the government was forced to back down, allowing the hearings to go ahead Tuesday. Four groups were heard including the Association canadienne des boissons and the Institut national de santé publique du Québec.
Health Minister Sonia Bélanger, who is trying to steer the bill into law, sounded frustrated when she left the hearings.
“I was very disappointed with the arguments of the Association Canadienne des boissons,” Bélanger told reporters. “They had no scientific arguments to back their statements.”
Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime, however, argued it was time well spent.
“I don’t think the problem is the independent members or the Conservative members,” Duhaime told reporters. “The problem is the government trying to rush 19 bills in this house in four days. I’ve never seen that.”
Constitution and other bills seem unlikely
Meanwhile, with the clock ticking, the chance of many other pieces of legislation being adopted is fading.
Bill 1 creating a Quebec constitution is still mired in clause-by-clause study as the opposition parties stall.
Undaunted by the short time frame, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette has announced the committee studying the bill will sit Wednesday and Thursday into the evening anyway.
“Unfortunately the opposition parties are indulging in a systematic blockade,” Jolin-Barrette said.
“It’s no to Simon’s constitution,” replied Liberal house leader Marc Tanguay.
The other bill that risks not making it is Bill 23 on involuntary hospitalizations of people with mental health problems.
Originally a priority bill for the CAQ, groups have emerged in the last few weeks to question the powers it would give the government.
“We can’t seriously work on this bill by adopting six clauses in six hours and spend an hour and a half on the title of the bill,” Bélanger said.
Bill 5 fast-tracking infrastructure projects is another question mark. After attempting more than 25 amendments, Québec solidaire now says it opposes the bill.
Responsible for the bill, Infrastructure Minister Eric Girard has warned failure to adopt the law will mean delays in the construction of REM stations in Montreal’s Griffintown and Bridge-Bonaventure areas.
The one bill that seems to be saved is the so-called Gabie Renaud bill, which would allow women to find out if their partner has a history of violence.
Bill 4 passed the final hurdle at the committee stage Tuesday and will be voted on before the week is done.