Thank you again for the invitation. This is the second time that I have had the honour and the privilege of being here.
I know that you have all received and read paper 1, which is a background briefing paper that provides a summary of some of the intergovernmental relations arrangements in Canada. With the exception of one error of no consequence to the essence of the content, it provides a good overview of the arrangements from a Canadian perspective. In my short presentation, I will attempt to provide you with the Québec perspective of how that works and to answer any subsequent questions that might you have about arrangements in Canada or other areas of interest.
For the record, the factual error to which I referred can be found in the second paragraph of paragraph 17, which talks about the Council of the Federation. The council was not formalised by the independence-seeking Parti Québécois, but by the federalist Québec Liberal Party Government under Jean Charest after regaining power in 2003. It was intended as an instrument to better assert Québec’s place within the federation and to promote provincial initiatives.
Four key elements constitute the mechanism for Québec’s intergovernmental relations. The first and most important is the secretariat for Canadian intergovernmental relations or, as we call it, SAIC—le secrétariat aux affaires intergouvernementales canadiennes. Secondly, there are the Canadian intergovernmental conferences, which are better known in Canada as federal-provincial conferences, although often only the provinces meet. The third element is the Council of the Federation, to which I have just referred, and the fourth is the ministry of international relations and la Francophonie, which deals with international intergovernmental relations. The ministry has offices such as the one in London in about 16 countries and 28 different locations around the world. I will not dwell much upon the latter, as it was the primary subject of my presentation here last year for the European and External Relations Committee, but I will provide some detail on the other elements that I have mentioned.
First of all, the SAIC plays a key advisory role to the Government of Québec on all matters affecting intergovernmental relations, both with the federal Government and with other provincial Governments, and it is led by Jean-Marc Fournier, the minister responsible for Canadian relations and the Canadian Francophonie. His role is supported by this secretariat of some 60 people, which has been known in its current guise since 1984, when it became part of the executive council of Québec. It was attached to the premier’s office with a minister specifically responsible for it, and it gained the exclusive mandate of dealing with Canadian affairs. That crystallised the importance of Canadian intergovernmental relations that had been growing since the 1980 referendum as well as the priority accorded to their co-ordination at the highest level of Government. SAIC’s role is to analyse the policies and laws adopted by other Canadian Governments and evaluate their implications for Québec. The SAIC is based in Québec City, but it is also represented by two further offices in Canada, one in Toronto and the other in Moncton in New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province in Canada.
The SAIC is responsible for co-ordinating the actions of the Government of Québec in the context of its relations with the rest of Canada, which we usually call the ROC—sometimes we feel as though we are between a rock and a hard place. It plays a key role in promoting and defending Québec’s interests within Canada; it advises the Government of Québec on any issue concerning its relations with its partners in the federation; and it ensures its mandate by engaging with actors on the federal and provincial scene with a view to ensuring the respect and integrity of Québec’s constitutional jurisdictions. It acts as the Government of Québec’s memory, if you like, regarding intergovernmental issues and federalism, and as the defender of Québec’s constitutional jurisdictions when it comes to the implementation of federal policies and programmes by the federal Government. In addition, the SAIC is responsible for the constitutional file and all negotiations in this area, although that aspect has been rather quiet since 1995, and it is mandated to promote the Canadian Francophonie and recognise the important contributions made to the defence and promotion of the French language by Francophone communities across Canada.
The second mechanism is Canadian intergovernmental conferences or what are known as the federal-provincial conferences. The Québec Government participates in about 80 Canadian intergovernmental conferences annually at both federal-provincial and interprovincial levels. The SAIC prepares positions to be promoted by the Government of Québec at those conferences, be they federal-provincial or just provincial, in collaboration with the specific sectoral ministries involved.
The federal-provincial conferences occur at First Ministerial, ministerial and official levels. As the name implies, the First Ministers’ conferences involve Canada’s most senior political leaders, usually focus on a single topic of discussion and are called at the behest of the federal Prime Minister. They are highly political; they seek to offer opportunities to chart general policy direction and to provide a high-level forum for the negotiation of issues of concern. They vary in frequency depending upon the federal Prime Minister. For example, the previous federal Government rarely convened them over its nine-year mandate—I think that there were one or two—while the present Government has convened two in the past two years, both on climate change.
Ministerial meetings provide federal and provincial ministers with the occasion to discuss sectoral issues including agriculture, environment, finance, health and so on, while officials’ meetings involve deputy ministers—I think that you call them permanent secretaries—and/or other senior officials. Such meetings, which can be formal or informal, are an on-going channel of communication between officials of the various ministries.
The Council of the Federation, the newest addition to the available mechanisms, can be interpreted as the provincial equivalent of the First Ministers’ conferences. A high-level, multilateral Government forum that comprises Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial premiers—there are 10 provinces and three territories—it usually meets twice a year. As I have said, the council is new; established in 2003, it was spearheaded by Québec as a framework for formalising interprovincial relations. There is no formal structure for such relations, just as there is no formal constitutional structure foreseen for federal-provincial relations. The council aims to strengthen interprovincial-territorial co-operation, exercise leadership on issues of importance to the provinces and promote relations between Governments that are based on respect for the constitution and recognition of the diversity of the federation.
The council’s creation was championed by Québec in the context of its being felt that there was a need to better assert provincial authority and autonomy, and I guess that we could say that, in some ways, it is a work in progress. It has had some success in bringing to the forefront issues such as climate change and the reduction of interprovincial trade barriers, and it ensures that things that depend on the provinces can be discussed among the provinces. Sometimes common positions are developed vis-à-vis the federal Government and sometimes divergences between the provinces are identified.
The diverse range of mechanisms permits Québec to regularly engage in clear and comprehensive dialogue on internal intergovernmental relations with all key partners. In addition, Québec has a fairly strong infrastructure that we can use to exercise some kind of, if you like, international intergovernmental relations on the international stage. As a ministry of international relations, we do not seek to create or enact foreign policy but rather to ensure Québec’s international intergovernmental relations in areas of our own jurisdiction.
Given the time constraints and the fact that it would be interesting to engage in a discussion, and given that I have already made a presentation on international relations, I will close with a brief remark on the subject. Québec’s ministry of international relations co-ordinates our action on the international scene on the basis of the principle that whatever Québec’s powers are at home, they are Québec’s powers everywhere. Earlier, you heard a reference to the Flemish and Walloon Governments—the Belgian regional Governments. Our reality is not quite the same, as that principle is not constitutionally recognised, but Québec acts as if the principle allows us to seek a presence on the international scene on areas of our jurisdiction.
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The principle was endorsed by the Privy Council in the 1930s when it was ruled that treaties negotiated on the international scene by Canada, which has exclusive jurisdiction for international commerce, require in areas of provincial jurisdiction provincial consent for their implementation in those areas. Therefore, in principle, for that decision to be made, the involvement of the provinces—and Québec actualises its place on the international scene—is required. As for our policies on the international scene, we have 28 international representations located in 16 countries around the world, and we represent ourselves in the various matters that I mentioned earlier.
I hope I have provided you with something informative that will, perhaps, be the basis of an interesting exchange of questions at what is a rather interesting time for you. After listening to the previous discussion, I am sure that you are curious about how things work.