Carney, Quebec premier feud over EU summit dinner

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon traded barbs Tuesday over the premier’s role at the Canada-European Union summit, which opens Thursday in Montreal.

“He was invited to the dinner and he refused,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. “It’s his decision to leave the chair empty.” La Presse also reported the prime minister’s reply.

St-Pierre Plamondon wrote on social media that Ottawa is seeking to impose economic decisions on Quebec without giving the province a seat at the negotiating table. The federal government has assured him he is invited to dinner with EU representatives, but he will not speak at the summit, which runs Thursday and Friday, The Canadian Press reported.

“The federal government would have us believe that giving the Quebec premier permission to serve shrimp cocktails at a reception constitutes an acceptable and sufficient form of influence in representing Quebec’s interests,” the premier wrote (translated from French).

Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said geopolitics, including the summit, fall under federal jurisdiction.

The Parti Québécois government says Ottawa denied a request to host a reception on the sidelines of the summit, submitted in September by former premier Christine Fréchette. A provincial government spokesperson said the EU routinely holds a forum for economic leaders during such summits, which Quebec could have hosted or co-hosted. The spokesperson also said there is precedent for including Quebec, noting that provincial representatives took part in negotiations for the Canada-European Union Free Trade Agreement.

Marie-Claude Sarrazin, Quebec’s new minister of justice and Canadian intergovernmental affairs, said the federal position shows the province needs to be “fully in charge in our own home” (translated from French). “‘When you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,’ Prime Minister Carney once told us,” she said. “The federal government has chosen to prevent Quebec from having a say on its own territory. This is a fundamental lack of respect toward Quebec and a denial of the role of our legislature” (translated from French).

The dispute follows St-Pierre Plamondon’s decision to skip Monday’s meeting in Ottawa between the federal government, provincial premiers and First Nations leaders. As previously reported, he is scheduled to meet Indigenous leaders on Wednesday. On Monday he also spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Canada and the EU are expected to discuss a closer partnership at the summit, though an announcement on associate membership details is considered unlikely this week.

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