Drainville, that old monkey | Quebec Magazine

A potential case of nepotism in the National Assembly has long been raised.

In the years 2009 to 2012, every day brought its share of “allegations” and then responses from turbulent Liberal ministers, clinging to the same word – allegations – to claim that nothing had yet been conclusively proven.

Bernard Drainville, a member of parliament for the opposition Labor Q party, was pulling out all the stops. And in 2010, to point out the alleged undue influence of liberal fundraiser Franco Fava, he even coined a compound word, “favaritism”!

Projects

On Thursday, the roles were reversed somewhat. Liberal Marwa Rizky led the attack against Bernard Drainville, asserting that in matters of “expansion, renovation, and school building,” Legault’s government favored its elected officials.

Of the 48 projects, “100% were in CAQ provinces. All others were rejected. How can you explain this? The only province that was accepted was the autonomous province of Vaudroy.” [sur lequel] You have goals! » The representative was indignant.

Minister Drainville then stammered that with 90 seats in the CAQ, it was only natural that projects would often be found in pale blue provinces. In all cases, civil servants are responsible for the “classification” and it is done on the basis of objective criteria. The minister stressed: “We do not interfere.”

Appearance of

Let’s admit that 48 out of 48 projects are actually interesting. Especially since some of those excluded were nevertheless declared urgent in the post-Covid acceleration bill.

In her speech, the representative did not hesitate to highlight the appearance of favoritism, but she admitted that there was no evidence of any ministerial interference with her.

Minister Drenville’s response came yesterday, during cross-examination (a two-hour question period on a topic).

The 48 projects mentioned by Rizqi are among the projects scheduled to be implemented for one year 2023-2024. Since 2018 and for the current year, the minister said the CAQ party in power has opened or launched a number of expansion, renovation and school construction projects in the PQ and CAQ provinces and in several Liberal constituencies.

The minister added sarcastically: “Including Jacques Cartier, as the representative knows him well” (he is a descendant of Kelly; Greg, Rizki’s husband; and Jeff, Greg’s father, who was elected from 1994 to 2018). ).

Drenville also stressed, with supporting evidence, that if two projects in the Saint-Laurent department were postponed, it was at the request of the local service centre: “It is not a political decision, it is the service centre’s decision.” And the Saint Laurent member knows it […]. It makes good TV, but it’s not accurate. »

It seems that the minister is speaking from experience! He enjoyed putting Rizqi out of his depth by accusing the latter of “partisan play in the process” of determining the needs of schools.

Since becoming minister, Bernard Drainville has often appeared shaken. But yesterday, on the issue of nepotism, it was like, “You can’t teach an old monkey how to draw faces.”