Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is facing sharp criticism from both federalist and sovereigntist parties after suggesting there would be cuts to federal public servants in an independent Quebec.<\/p>\n
St-Pierre Plamondon made the remarks during a Radio-Canada program Friday, where he took questions from viewers for an hour.<\/p>\n
Asked about the role of federal public servants living in Gatineau in a sovereign Quebec, he said he wanted to be \u201cvery, very clear\u201d that there would be reductions in the federal workforce.<\/p>\n
He added that \u201ctransition measures\u201d would be put in place for those whose jobs could not continue under independence.<\/p>\n
The comments quickly drew backlash, including from Qu\u00e9bec solidaire spokesperson Sol Zanetti, who called the prospect of job losses \u201ca terrible political choice\u201d that would undermine support for independence.<\/p>\n
Writing on Facebook Saturday, Zanetti said the position breaks with the historic consensus of the sovereigntist movement.<\/p>\n
In 1995, then-premier Jacques Parizeau had pledged to integrate all federal public servants living in Quebec into the province\u2019s public service in the event of independence.<\/p>\n
Zanetti said a Qu\u00e9bec solidaire government would protect the jobs of all federal public servants residing in Quebec.<\/p>\n
Quebec Liberal House Leader Andr\u00e9 Fortin also criticized the remarks, saying they depart from past Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois positions that aimed to preserve public sector expertise and jobs.<\/p>\n
Fortin, who represents the Outaouais riding of Pontiac, said the proposal casts \u201ca huge economic cloud\u201d over the region.<\/p>\n
Zanetti acknowledged independence could generate savings by eliminating federal positions outside Quebec, but said a new country would still need experienced workers to staff newly created ministries.<\/p>\n
St-Pierre Plamondon reiterated his position Saturday, saying one goal of independence is to eliminate duplication between federal and provincial governments.<\/p>\n
In a statement, he said the move could help fund public services and potentially reduce taxes, but would \u201cnecessarily\u201d involve cutting some federal public service positions.<\/p>\n
\u2013With files from Caroline Plante, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is facing sharp criticism from both federalist and sovereigntist parties after suggesting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-553759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}