WATCH ABOVE: Premier Philippe Couillard tells Jamie Orchard what he’s learnt during his first year in office.
MONTREAL – Global’s Senior Anchor Jamie Orchard recently sat down with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard as he celebrated one year since his election.
They talked about many things, from doctor’s quotas and balanced budgets to advice for Montreal taxi drivers dealing with student protesters on a daily basis.
J.O.: What is the one word in your mind that would define your year?
P.C.: Demanding – but worth doing, and rewarding at the end because of this balancing our budget and what projects we can now push forward because of that.
J.O.: Do you not believe the doctors when they tell you they can’t take on 1000 patients and still provide quality service?
P.C.: I don’t believe this at all because I’ve been a doctor. I’ve practised.
I also know that in recent years we have literally made it so that as the numbers of doctors have increased, their revenues have increased significantly.
The amount of money we sent the federations, both the GPs and the specialists, has been significant with the promise that access would improve.
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It has not really improved, particularly for family doctors, so we must now be responsible and take action.
I’m not going to accept any more, with the quantity of money we are literally pumping into the system, that we don’t get better access, and what we have been demanding and what we are demanding is perfectly logical.
J.O.: Why do you think Quebecers aren’t getting your message that we have to stop spending more than what we earn?
P.C.: Because they’ve been used to, I think, governments withdrawing at the slightest manifestation of discomfort or disagreement.
Governments have just walked away and said “OK we’re going to do this another time.”
I’m not going to do this, I’m going to face our responsibilities very squarely and I’m not going to let our children pay the bills.
J.O.: What do you say to the taxi driver in downtown Montreal who’s stuck in student protests every day?
P.C.: There’s a right in our society to demonstrate, that’s a given, we have the rule of the law we should respect it every day.
This being said, being a student is not having a job, there is no such thing as a strike of students.
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People receive a service heavily subsidized by taxpayers.
If some of them choose not to receive this service, it’s their choice.
They will face the consequences in terms of their academic results for example, but there’s no way we’re going to accept that they will interfere with other people’s right to get access to those services and we’re going to be very strict about that.
J.O.: You’ve said you have no regrets over the past year, have you learned anything?
P.C.: I always learn, but what I learn I keep for myself (laughs).
I’m trying always to do better, we can always do better.
Someone who tells you he cannot learn or cannot do better is either lying or not aware of what’s going on around him or her.
So there’s always a way to do things better.
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I’m sure I will find a way to do things better, maybe carry the message better, again explaining and explaining better.
But I will keep telling people that this is what we have to do as a society not only for us but for our children, for the next generation.
Quebec has so many assets to develop its economy and be a very vibrant and prosperous place.
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I don’t want us to remain behind, I want us to be at the front, and we will be at the front.
J.O.: You’ve been criticized for being too friendly with the English community, has that hurt you politically?
P.C.: Whether it does or doesn’t, doesn’t really matter to me, I’m not talking about anglophones, I’m talking about English-speaking Quebecers.
To me this is very important, it’s a big distinction.
We’re all part of the same nation.
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We all recognize the fact that French has to be given importance in Quebec as the common public language as we like to say now, but the English-speaking Quebecers have been part of the fabric of this society, have been so much part of its construction, that I want not only for them to stay with us, but to be happy staying here in Montreal and in Quebec.
And I don’t mind what separatists will say about it, I’ll keep saying it.
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