DRUMMONDVILLE, Que. – The Couillard government is catching a lot of flak for what critics say is the wrong tack on Uber. But the criticism isn’t coming from the opposition – it’s coming from members of their own party.
The Liberal Youth Commission has been strongly – and vocally against the government’s recent Uber bill, which the ride-sharing company has said is likely to drive it out of the province.
“We are an open party. We invite competition. If we don’t invite competition we’re going to stop progress,” said Liberal Party member, Casper Bloom.
WATCH: The Quebec government has ruled that if Uber wants to operate in the province, it will have to follow the same rules as the taxi industry. But as Amanda Jelowicki reports, some wonder if that will drive out Uber.
At their bi-annual Conseil General, Liberal Party delegates voted to find a solution to allow companies like Uber and Airbnb to operate in Quebec.
“We will be ready to help (Transport Minister Jacques Daoust) re-think the bill to make it better for what we think is the sharing economy, the new economy,” said Jonathan Marleau, the Youth Commission president.
Daoust said this isn’t the end of the debate for the bill he hopes to pass this spring.
“We will have hearings and then we’ll evaluate the bill article by article and there are 160 articles,” he said.
It wasn’t just over Uber that Liberals found themselves knocking heads. Another faction of the party wants the education minister to introduce a bill similar to a Coaltion Avenir Quebec (CAQ) motion the government defeated just a couple weeks ago.
READ MORE: CAQ wants to raise age to stay in school, reduce dropout rate
It would extend kindergarten to age four and make it mandatory to stay in school until age 18.
“It’s the dynamic of dialogue. We are the persons who are supporting the government and that’s why we’re entitled to propose different ideas,” explained Jerome Turcotte, Liberal Policy Commission president.
The minister said he’s open to the propositions. However, adopting resolutions at the party level doesn’t mean they’ll be turned into law.
“Elected MP’s are doing their work; we are doing ours and during our grand congress we’re matching together to debate and to discuss,” he said.