Latest news with #Bill89
Montreal Gazette
3 days ago
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
CAQ government adopts law to limit length of labour disruptions
Quebec Politics By QUEBEC — Despite the staunch opposition of Quebec's labour unions, the National Assembly has adopted legislation designed to limit prolonged labour disruptions. With the support of the Quebec Liberals, the Coalition Avenir Québec government pushed Bill 89, which the unions have tagged a declaration of war on them, into law Thursday. The vote tally was 94 in favour, 17 against. Québec solidaire and Parti Québécois MNAs opposed. But Labour Minister Jean Boulet defended the new law, saying something had to be done to better protect the population in the event of long labour conflicts. 'It's important to find the right balance between the exercise of the right to strike or lock out and the needs of the population,' Boulet said shortly before the vote was taken. 'In many different sectors, we've observed many conflicts that have had tremendous repercussions for the population. I think about the parents, I think about the families, I think about the children who have particular needs when they have a specific disease or handicap.' Boulet noted Quebec is the Canadian champion when it comes to labour conflicts. He said Statistics Canada data shows Quebec set a record for strikes in 2023 with 690 work stoppages and broke that total in 2024 with 754 strikes. 'We have to take care of that,' Boulet said. Recent polling shows the population is also on the side of the government. According to a Léger poll commissioned by the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses last week, 74 per cent of Quebecers think that too many labour disruptions are bad for the economy. As well, 72 per cent of Quebecers believe the government should be able to intervene to end labour disputes. Boulet refuted claims by the unions and QS that the law gives the government too much power to intervene. Under the terms of the law, the Quebec cabinet will have the power to adopt a decree to refer a prolonged labour conflict affecting the public to the Administrative Labour Tribunal. The parties would then have seven days to reach an agreement to maintain services after which the tribunal would act itself to establish the list of essential services. The law excludes the health sector and civil service because they are already subject to the Essential Services Act, which requires them to maintain an acceptable level of services. The law includes a second mechanism giving the minister the power to submit a dispute to an arbitrator if he feels there is a 'real or apprehended threat,' that a strike or lockout will cause the population irreparable damage. This power could only be used in the event of a failed attempt to reach an agreement by a conciliator or mediator. 'It is important to repeat that it isn't a decision to be made by the government itself,' Boulet said. When he presented the bill, he ran down a long list of labour conflicts in which he said the public suffered, including the 2023 strike at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery that prevented families from burying their loved ones. 'I invite you to talk to those families,' Boulet said when the bill was presented in January 2025. The legislation also earned the support of Quebec's powerful business lobby, but the province's labour unions staged protests in front of the National Assembly in April. On Thursday, the opposition parties spoke out against the bill again. QS MNA Alexandre Leduc called Bill 89 'authoritarian and discriminatory.' 'It's too much power for one man,' Leduc told reporters. 'The right to strike is not fun for anyone, but it is the only tool left for a lot of people trying to reach a better distribution of wealth in Quebec.' He added that the law already on the books, the Essential Services Act, would have sufficed to settle most of the labour disputes Boulet mentioned in his pitch for the new law. Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay went the other way and said his party believes the new law is justified. 'I think it's important that we modernize our law, and a balanced approach is part of the solution,' Tanguay said. This story was originally published May 29, 2025 at 3:36 PM.
Montreal Gazette
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Protesters vandalize CAQ cabinet minister's Montreal office
Quebec Politics Montreal police have launched an investigation aimed at tracking down the 40 or so protesters who vandalized the Montreal offices of Coalition Avenir Quebec MNA and Legault government cabinet minister Chantal Rouleau. Montreal police said a 911 call was made a little before 10 a.m. Thursday reporting that 40 people had entered Rouleau's office on St-Jean-Baptiste Blvd. in the city's Pointe-aux-Trembles district. The protesters plastered anti-Bill 89 stickers on office furniture and spread paint on the office's exterior, police said. Bill 89 is legislation proposed by the Legault government that would consider the needs of the public in the event of a strike or lockout. Unions have criticized the bill as an attack on the right of workers to strike. The Supreme Court of Canada has established that there is a constitutional right to strike. However, that right can be limited for job categories that are classified as essential services. Rouleau was quick to condemn the vandalism, saying on social media: 'Threats, vandalism and theft in my riding office (are a) sad reality experienced by politicians in 2025.' The protesters, apparently transported by bus, then left. Police are hoping surveillance cameras will help lead them to those responsible for the damage to the office. This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 1:31 PM.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP threatens Beshear's power as governor pushes back against new laws
The 2025 legislative session just ended, but questions over funding for several bills passed by lawmakers in recent weeks is setting the table for the first conflict of the 2026 Kentucky General Assembly. On one side is Gov. Andy Beshear, a term-limited Democrat in office through 2027 who says his office will be unable to enforce 11 bills approved by the legislature because they did not have budget appropriations attached. On the other side is the Republican-dominated legislature, whose majority leaders say they plan to use the next legislative session — which will be centered around building the state's next two-year budget — to hit back at the governor if he won't carry out the new laws. "We're going to take all doubt out of what he doesn't have the ability to spend money on going forward," House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said Friday on the last day of the 2025 session. "It will be a different-looking budget next time." In a letter sent to state legislators Thursday, Beshear said some of the bills in question "represent good public policy and programs" and cited only financial implications as the barrier for implementation. But the 11 pieces of legislation in his letter include several of the more controversial bills passed this year, including some his office spoke out against. House Bill 495, which reverses Beshear's 2024 executive order banning conversion therapy while also banning Medicaid from covering some medical treatments for transgender residents, is among them. So is Senate Bill 89, which loosens pollution restrictions for many Kentucky waterways and had drawn "grave concerns" from the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, as well as House Bill 695, which adds work requirements for able-bodied adults who receive Medicaid coverage in the state. Beshear has estimated implementation costs of each bill would rise into the millions. "These holdings are simple: if the legislature creates a policy or program but does not provide funding, it does not intend for the executive branch to perform those services over the biennium," his letter stated. "... Thesebills are lacking the appropriations necessary to implement these legislative acts." The governor announced earlier this year his office would publish projected fiscal impacts of bills in the legislature through a state website, also prompting pushback from some GOP legislators. In a statement Monday evening, Beshear spokesperson Crystal Staley said the governor asked the General Assembly, "which claims it's fiscally conservative, to be fiscally responsible." "The General Assembly's response was anger over the publication of the fiscal notes and it now threatens to punish the Governor if he cannot run the new, expensive programs without any funding," Staley said. "Our families have to budget, and so should the General Assembly." Republican legislators who took issue with Beshear's claims argued the governor has at times implemented policies that support his own priorities without concern over their impact on state spending. House Speaker Pro Tempore David Meade, R-Stanford, said last year the governor "used $50 million to expand Medicaid, to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates in certain areas," evidence Beshear "doesn't even follow his own guidance." Meade, who's been in office for a dozen years, ended his comments on the House floor Thursday with a warning for Beshear about the next legislative session, when lawmakers will spend 60 days hammering out the next two-year state budget. "Don't worry, governor — because next year when we do the budget, we are going to make it abundantly clear what you can and cannot spend money on," Meade said, to applause from other GOP legislators. In comments to Louisville Public Media, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, was more pointed. Beshear, the only official in a statewide elected office who is not a Republican, has been a popular speaker on the national circuit in recent months as a Democrat who won reelection in a solidly red state. He spoke last year during the election cycle at Democratic events in Iowa and Georgia, as he was vetted as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris, and touted Kentucky in a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Discretionary money used by the governor to fund trips, though, could be at risk if the legislature's bills aren't put in place, Stivers said. 'He won't hire anybody, he won't travel. He won't do anything unless he gets authority from the legislature,' he told LPM. 'Because everybody knows, by the Constitution the power of the purse is ours.' Other bills cited in Beshear's letter include: Senate Bill 4, which creates state standards for use of artificial intelligence. Senate Bill 27, which establishes committees and additional research concerning Parkinson's disease. Senate Bill 43, which changes regulations around drivers with physical or mental disabilities. Senate Bill 63, which allows "special purpose vehicles" on highways in some instances. House Bill 346, which alters payments on emissions fees from generators. House Bill 390, which changes state laws surrounding vehicle insurance and online insurance verification. House Bill 398, which loosens state workplace health and safety regulations. House Bill 775, which was expanded late in the session to alter taxes on several products and projects in Kentucky. When Osborne adjourned Friday's House session, he said the chamber would gavel back in to begin next year's 60-day General Assembly on Jan. 6, 2025 — "in the parking lot," he joked, a reference to temporary chambers currently under construction while the state Capitol begins a years-long renovation. If Beshear's office does not implement new laws passed this year, he said, that won't be forgotten when lawmakers return to Frankfort. "He continues to cite feeble legal salutations on why he doesn't have to follow the law. Even as governor, he still has to follow the law," Osborne said. "By and large, I think that you're going to see us move to remedy a lot of that." Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@ This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Beshear, Kentucky Republicans clash over funding for new 2025 laws
CBC
14-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Protest forces cancellation of Quebec labour minister's speech in Montreal
Social Sharing A speech by Quebec's labour minister to the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal was cancelled on Friday after more than 1,000 unionized workers gathered in protest over a controversial bill tabled by the minister last month. Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet was set to speak at the Plaza Centre-Ville, but the situation outside got out of hand, according to Montreal police, who say a hotel window was smashed and an officer was assaulted, but not injured. Boulet left the event on recommendation of Quebec provincial police, before he had the chance to speak. In February, the minister tabled a bill that, if adopted, would give more power to the provincial government to limit the duration of strikes and lockouts. Bill 89 would also allow Quebec to step in to avoid disruption of services in schools and municipalities. This drew the ire of many union organizations, nine of which organized the large workers' rally downtown on Friday afternoon. "First of all, it's important to stress that I fully support the right to demonstrate. However, it must be exercised with respect for public order, and without resorting to violence," read a statement sent from Boulet's office following the event. He added that the goal of Bill 89 is to give "greater consideration to the needs of the public in the event of a strike or lockout, particularly those of vulnerable people." Boulet explained that Quebec does not intend on taking away workers' right to strike. But Caroline Senneville, head of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) union, sees it differently. "We think it's illegal and we're gonna contest this in front of the tribunals, but the thing is, when you do that, it takes time and damage will be done," she said. "The Supreme Court has been really clear: we have a right to form unions, we have a right to negotiate in good faith and we have the right to strike if we need to and what the government is doing right now, what the Quebec government is doing, is infringing on these rights." Senneville says Bill 89 could impact workers' leverage to improve their working conditions. Michel Leblanc, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, says he's disappointed that the workers' actions resulted in the event being cancelled, although he says he supports their right to protest. "In 16 years, it's the first time we cancel an event because protesters decided to do whatever they want ... to stop an exchange with a minister on his intentions and current day issues," said Leblanc.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill weakening Kentucky groundwater and wetland protection passes, poised to become law
Kentucky lawmakers passed a bill expected to weaken the state's ability to protect groundwater, wetlands and some streams, lakes and springs from pollution, despite staunch opposition from Kentucky's environmental agency and scores of advocates. Sen. Scott Madon, R-Pineville, who sponsored Senate Bill 89, said the legislation would ease the burden of environmental regulations and permitting for coal mines and other industries and align with federal water definitions — which were weakened in 2023 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the state's existing definition of "waters of the commonwealth," the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet has broad jurisdiction to regulate and protect groundwater, springs, marshes and other important water resources. Madon's bill would instead defer to the less protective federal water definitions, narrowing state regulators' jurisdiction over Kentucky waters. Lawmakers said they were flooded with thousands of calls and emails about the bill from constituents, many concerned about threats to drinking water, particularly in communities dependent on wells. Rep. Jim Gooch, R-Providence, said he "shared some of those concerns," and amended the bill in the House to restore some specific protections for sinkholes, wellhead protection areas and some springs. But Gooch's revisions still do not explicitly preserve the state's protections on groundwater and other key water resources around the commonwealth, according to regulatory officials. In a letter, cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman told lawmakers the amended bill "does not address groundwater aquifers and would provide no protection for the state's residents who have domestic use wells, including Kentucky's farmers, and those who rely on water systems whose source water comes from groundwater." Proponents framed the legislation as a means of curbing regulatory overreach and streamlining permitting. Supporters included prominent voices of industry, including the Kentucky Coal Association, the Home Builders Association of Kentucky, the American Petroleum Institute, the Kentucky Farm Bureau and the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, according to Gooch. The bill's consideration came after some Republicans scrutinized the state's permitting of coal mining operations, The Courier Journal previously reported, based on emails between senators and cabinet officials last year. The cabinet took a remarkably firm stance against SB 89, and, in a statement, agreed with environmental advocates in calling the legislation "an irresponsible, dangerous and deliberate choice to cater to a few at the expense of many" — a perspective Gooch dismissed as "hyperbole" during committee. The Republican-led bill passed mostly along party lines, and now heads to the desk of Gov. Andy Beshear, who may veto it. But the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly would still have time to override his veto and pass the legislation into law, and its emergency clause would allow it to go into effect immediately. Under the amended bill passed by the General Assembly, Kentucky's Energy and Environment Cabinet said the following water resources would have inadequate protections: Groundwater aquifers; Lakes and reservoirs, including those used for drinking water and recreation, if they lack a "continuous surface connection" with protected waters Some springs, such as those not directly used as domestic drinking water sources. SB 89's passage would make Kentucky the only state "to cede its authority to define its waters to the federal government and jeopardize state regulatory primacy," the cabinet said. "This is not where Kentucky needs to be the exception." Impacts to groundwater were the chief concern expressed by the agency and environmental advocates. About 1.5 million Kentuckians rely on drinking water from private wells or public water systems drawing from groundwater, and opponents of the bill said water quality would be at risk under the narrowed protections. Groundwater and smaller, unassuming streams ultimately drain to or connect with major waterways. "Although groundwater and surface water are often thought of as two different things, groundwater is frequently the sustaining supply for surface water," according to the Kentucky Geological Survey. Kentuckians rely on the entire system for drinking water, agricultural use and more. "It's really frustrating for a scientist to work as a legislator," Rep. Al Gentry, a Louisville Democrat and geologist by trade, said on the House floor, "because I feel a lot of times we pass stuff without giving things a lot of thought." In the absence of regulatory oversight across Kentucky's sprawling hydrologic system, waters could be exposed to pollution from construction, unplugged oil and gas wells, septic systems, or other industrial contamination 'without recourse,' said Audrey Ernstberger, a Kentucky Resources Council attorney who advocated against SB 89. When the bill passed out of a House committee Wednesday, Eastern Kentucky Rep. Bobby McCool was the lone Republican vote in opposition. McCool, a former coal miner, represents Martin County, where a coal slurry spill in 2000 and years of mismanagement and system failures amounted to a crisis for drinking water quality. "I just cannot take a risk of hurting the water system, when I'm dealing already with public water, and we can't get that taken care of," McCool told the committee, "and we're talking about private wells ... I'm just not confident that has been taken care of." Many of Kentucky's small and rural water systems are already struggling to maintain reliable, affordable water services while managing underfunded and aging infrastructure, The Courier Journal previously reported. Diminished water quality could necessitate increased treatment costs for public water systems, in turn increasing costs for ratepayers, the cabinet and other opponents of SB 89 said. With the passage of SB 89, Kentucky opts to defer to federal definitions on waterway protections — even as protections at the federal level continue to shrink. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling on Sackett v. EPA, several state legislatures took on the issue of defining their own protected waters. Some, like Indiana, moved to loosen protections, while Illinois attempted to bolster them. Some opponents of Kentucky's SB 89 took issue with the idea of ceding definitions of Kentucky's waters to the federal government. Those definitions are once again facing uncertainty, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump recently announced it would revise the rules to "cut compliance costs" and "reduce cost of living." "I personally do not want somebody in Washington, D.C., making these decisions for me," said Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, on the House floor. "There's nobody there that knows Kentucky, knows our waterways, knows our environment the way that we do." Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter at The Courier Journal. Reach him directly at cgiffin@ or on X @byconnorgiffin. Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@ This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky General Assembly approves weaker water pollution rules
