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Quebec Election: 4 Sep 12

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2013/02/18/quebec-anglophones-leaving-living-english.html


I've heard lots of discussion but this is the first time I've seen some poll numbers




Anglophones wary of PQ government, poll suggests
Living English: Anglos consider leaving Quebec41:29
The election of the minority Parti Québécois government last September has many anglophones questioning their future in Quebec, a new poll commissioned by the CBC suggests.

Forty-two per cent of those surveyed in the EKOS research poll said they have considered leaving the province in the wake of the PQ victory.

FEATURELiving English
In particular, the PQ's stance on language restrictions has raised eyebrows in the English-speaking community.

On Sunday, a crowd gathered in front of Premier Pauline Marois' Montreal office to protest Bill 14, which proposes amendments to Quebec's language laws.

Marc Stamos, who participated in the demonstration, grew up in Montreal. After living in Toronto, he moved back home to start a family. Now he's thinking of leaving again.

"We were starting to plant our roots here," he said.

'The environment in Quebec is hostile'
—Richard Yufe, CRITIQ
"For the first time in 17 years, all of a sudden, we're starting to think of leaving again."

Real estate 'surge' in eastern Ontario
Jackie Smith, an Ontario Real Estate Broker, said she has noticed an increase in business since the election.

"We tend to notice a surge when the PQ gets into power," she said.

Smith, works for the Lancaster Royal LePage and sells homes just minutes from the Quebec border.

She estimated her business has gone up by about 25 per cent since the PQ's election.

Many of her clients are English-speaking Quebecers who are wary of the government's language policies. Some of them are also francophone parents who want their children to learn English in school.

'Tired of linguistic roadblocks,' Quebec City resident says
Ginny Roy and her family are pulling up stakes in Quebec City and moving to Toronto this summer, after having agonized over what they should do for the past several years.

Roy moved to Quebec from the United States 15 years ago, settling down in her francophone husband's hometown to raise her daughter, who is now in high school.

She said her daughter is reluctant to leave, but she and her husband have decided it's a question of survival for their family.

"I'm tired of the linguistic roadblocks," Roy told Bernard St-Laurent, host of Quebec's Radio Noon.

Roy said her job history is spotty because her French is not considered good enough by many Quebec City employers.

However, she said it was the difficulty in getting health care in her native language that was the final straw.

Roy has had cancer three times, and she said that last summer one of the specialists who had always been willing to speak to her in English in the past suddenly refused to.

She said this happened shortly after the start of the provincial election campaign.

"It was very telling — her political affilation," Roy said. "I was out the door as fast as she could get me… She looked like she didn't even want me in her office."

'Glass ceiling' for non-francophones, activist says
Richard Yufe is a member of the executive committee of Canadian Rights in Quebec (CRITIQ), a newly formed organization that aims to defend the rights of Quebecers to live in both French and English.

Yufe says there is a glass ceiling in Quebec for those who don't have a French-language background.

"The environment in Quebec is hostile," he said.

"[In] the law firms, the accounting firms, the marketing firms, there's a perceived notion that you can't have too much of an English face," Yufe said. "You have to have a French character and flavour because we're in Quebec."

Yufe said this creates an environment that is particularly difficult for English speakers.

Quebec brain drain
The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), an organization that works to defend the rights of anglophones, said it's not surprised people are crossing the border.

Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director general of the QCGN, said the poll results suggest a significant percentage of the English-speaking population is unhappy about their place in Quebec.

'There's an enormous brain drain'
—Sylvia Martin-Laforge, QCGN
"Forty-two per cent is a pretty big number," she said.

Martin-Laforge said the PQ's stance on language laws has created concern among anglophones since the election.

Since the PQ's first election win in 1976 and the subsequent 1980 sovereignty referendum, Quebec's English speaking population has declined by thousands of people.

"By their leaving, there is a brain drain, there's an enormous brain drain," Martin-Laforge said.

In 1971, before the PQ's first election, the anglophone population sat at 788,833. By 2011, the total had dropped to 599,230.

The EKOS poll results are based on a telephone survey conducted between Jan. 15 and Jan. 23 with a random sample of 1,001 anglophone Quebecers.

The margin of error is +/- 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

 
And here is a bit of "fallout," reproduced under the fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from Montreal talk radio station CJAD:

http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/entry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10525546
Quebec ramps up war of words with Ottawa

Posted By: Andrew Peplowski

4/3/2013

Premier Pauline Marois has issued marching orders to her cabinet colleagues as she escalates the war of words with Ottawa and pushes the Parti Quebecois sovereignty agenda.

A new directive prohibits cabinet ministers from speaking English in matters relating to federal-provincial affairs.

Journal de Montreal columnist J Jacques Samson writes this morning that when the two sides have to talk, simultaneous translation will be used and no Quebec minister will be allowed to speak English.

He says the decision is one of several that will be taken as the PQ adopts a position of governing as if it was already leading an independent Quebec, rather than going through a process of promoting sovereignty with an eventual referendum on the issue.


Some wag has already noted that Ottawa will not notice as Quebec never said "thank you," in either official language, for all the pork that flows its way.
 
to be honest , since she got elected im kinda ashamed to be living in Quebec ....... Shes doing so many wrong things that are making the Quebec province look like complete idiots ...... it's really sad ....
 
Actually, she's just using the national Official Languages rules as they were originally intended: Canadians, including Quebecers, should be able to deal with Ottawa in the official language of their (not Ottawa's) choice. A Quebec minister should be able to deal with the federal government in French as long and as often as (s)he wishes, regardless of the language profile of the Ottawa folks across the table.
 
well its not about the language she want's to use in the chamber in ottawa , i hate the fact that she is trying to get rid of the laws about army kids beeing able to attend english school because of the parents jobs .... I hate the fact that she tryes to close the option to go to an english CEPGEP if you want to ( if you parents are french ).  I don't know why she keeps on bringing Canada down and hoping for a quebec seperation , but hey , I can't do much then vote against her at the election and hope that everyone will do the same ....
 
E.R. Campbell said:
Actually, she's just using the national Official Languages rules as they were originally intended: Canadians, including Quebecers, should be able to deal with Ottawa in the official language of their (not Ottawa's) choice. A Quebec minister should be able to deal with the federal government in French as long and as often as (s)he wishes, regardless of the language profile of the Ottawa folks across the table.

I agree with all you've said here Edward, but that's not what's happening. Minister are being TOLD what language to speak. It is beyond the scope of governments to require people speak one language over another.
 
http://gold.globeinvestor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/GAM/20130508/RBCOUSINEAUCOLUMNPRINTATL/stocks/news?back_url=yes

A Quebec mining plan that pleases no one
SOPHIE COUSINEAU
00:00 EST Wednesday, May 08, 2013
 

MONTREAL -- scousineau@globeandmail.com

Premier Pauline Marois is going to great lengths to put the Parti Québécois's imprint on the development of Quebec's North.

Ms. Marois and three of her ministers travelled all the way to Chibougamau on Tuesday to meet the press in the small mining and forestry town that sits north of the 49th parallel, in what used to be Plan Nord territory.

But now it's out with Plan Nord, Jean Charest's signature economic project, and in with the "Nord pour tous" - North for everybody - as the PQ's program is now called.

In a blind taste test, however, you would be hard pressed to tell the two plans apart. The government now says it will invest $868-million in infrastructure and social housing over the next five years, almost exactly what the Liberals had allocated to the roads and parks in the North. The only change is that private developers will have to assume a bigger share of the risk when they are the sole users of roads and railways - a flaw the PQ rightly corrected.

In essence, the Quebec government is barely rebranding a program so tainted in bright Liberal red that Ms. Marois's eyes would hurt just looking at it. But there are some striking differences between the then and the now.

The PQ's plan has garnered none of the enthusiasm Plan Nord sparked when Mr. Charest unveiled it almost two years ago to the day alongside native leaders and mining executives. And its new mining regime is now pilloried by both environmentalists and mining companies alike.

In the spring of 2011, there was no end in sight for the mining boom, and talk of the expected $80-billion in investments that would create or maintain 20,000 jobs a year barely raised eyebrows. Now, everyone is wondering if the resource economy will simply carry on at a less hectic pace, or if it will fall more precipitously - as all the recent project cancellations seem to point to. And they're wondering if the new royalties regime unveiled by Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau could knock Quebec out of the mining race.

You couldn't find a mining executive anywhere near Mr. Marceau on Monday - nor an environmentalist for that matter. Even Quebec's Natural Resources Minister, Martine Ouellet, a hardliner on mining companies who was coaxed into attending the press conference, couldn't bring herself to say anything nice about the new royalties regime when asked by reporters.

Just about every interested party criticized the new mining rules by which all companies operating a mine in the province will be forced to pay royalties, be they profitable or not. Common wisdom would say this is a sign that a fair solution has been found. But some compromises are hurtful.

On the plus side, the rules of the game are spelled out, which puts an end to eight months of uncertainty. And the regime, which the Liberals amended only three years ago, should not change any time soon, although that doesn't say much coming from a minority government.

The supertax on profits, which rises progressively, and the minimum mining tax, which is calculated on the output value at the mine shaft head less expenses, are much milder than what the PQ campaigned on. Also, in a surprise reminiscent of the retroactive tax hikes, Mr. Marceau revealed that mining companies will only have to pay the highest of the two taxes, not both, which was news to all.

You cannot blame Mr. Marceau for taking the changing macroeconomic environment into account. But one cannot help but wonder if the changes, which were made to honour a campaign pledge, are worth all the trouble given how little extra revenue the province will take in. In 2015, the government predicts it will earn $370-million in royalties, as opposed to $320-million with the current regime, a mere 15 per cent more. For environmentalists (and PQ allies) that were hoping for more cash to clean up the abandoned mines, this is a slap in the face.

The tax on profits, whose rate increases when the profit margin exceeds 35 per cent, is a good idea. It will allow Quebeckers to partake into any mining bonanza when the prices of their non-renewable resources skyrocket, as the price of gold had done in the past decade.

The minimum mining tax on production is a bad idea, even if its impact was softened for smaller producers. Under an annual output value of $80-million, the tax rate stands at 1 per cent as opposed to 4 per cent above that threshold.

A tax on production will discourage investment or encourage miners to idle Quebec mines first, at a time when rising costs, harder-to-find financing and falling commodity prices have forced many producers to postpone or cancel projects.

Rio Tinto may well pursue its $5-billion (U.S.) iron ore expansion in Western Australia. But Northern Quebec is no Pilbara. Quebec's mineral concentration is much lower. Its exploration and exploitation costs are higher because of its harsh winters and difficult access. And the province is further away from China and other major clients than Australia or South America.

With its royalties reform, Quebec has become the costliest jurisdiction in Canada. As the province stands out unfavorably, the Quebec government is jeopardizing an industry that gives highly paid work to some 34,000 Quebeckers, a huge risk that could translate into crumbs for everybody.



While this is tied to the Quebec election promises the lessons here are similar to what happened in Alberta a couple of years ago when teh government of the day changed the royalty regime just in time to see the bottom fall out of the natural gas market and BC's shale gas play exploded.   
 
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