Quebec premier accepts Carney’s offer to meet

Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said Sunday he has accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Mark Carney to meet before the Francophonie summit in Cambodia, ending a tense week between Quebec City and Ottawa.

“I heard Mark Carney’s invitation for a meeting before the Francophonie summit in Cambodia, at which I will personally lead Quebec’s delegation. I accept this invitation and thank him for his change of tone,” St-Pierre Plamondon wrote in a long Facebook post (translated from French).

Carney told La Presse in an interview published Saturday that he wanted to meet the premier within about 10 days, in Montreal. La Presse reported that St-Pierre Plamondon is asking that the meeting take place in Quebec City instead. The 20th Francophonie summit runs from Nov. 14 to 17.

The post centred on the dispute over the Canada-European Union summit in Montreal. The premier, who skipped the summit and sent a letter, said Ottawa refused to let Quebec address the European dignitaries even though the event was held in Montreal, and that Quebec was “relegated to the status of an extra” (translated from French).

Carney has said the premier left an empty chair at the table. St-Pierre Plamondon rejected that, saying Quebec’s chief negotiator and diplomat, Pascal Paradis, sat at the head table and met privately with senior EU officials.

The premier also said three working meetings between Quebec and Ottawa to prepare the summit, which Carney has mentioned publicly, did not take place. He said he made that claim after checking with the secretary general of the Quebec government and the deputy minister of international relations. The federal government has not responded to that claim in the reports reviewed.

Liberal Leader Charles Milliard, whose party forms the official opposition, said on Facebook that the premier “put his ideological preferences ahead of the interests of Quebecers” (translated from French). He said the Parti Québécois’s “choice of confidence” is becoming a “choice of bickering”.

St-Pierre Plamondon said Quebec will no longer stay quiet when its interests are not respected, and said Legault’s government complained publicly about federal treatment without taking concrete action. He also said Quebec’s international relations, including the Gérin-Lajoie doctrine, will grow in importance during his mandate, though his first 100 days commitments remain the priority.

The Parti Québécois won 60 of 127 seats in the Oct. 5 election and governs with a minority. The premier has also spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron and plans a trip to France.

No date has been announced for the Carney meeting. The report was confirmed by La Presse and Noovo.

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Sources: La Presse, Noovo Info.