Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is Quebec’s 34th premier, sworn in at the National Assembly in Quebec City this week at the head of a Parti Québécois minority government. His swearing-in and the unveiling of a smaller, 22-minister cabinet complete the sovereigntist party’s return to power after the Oct. 5 provincial election ended eight years of Coalition Avenir Québec rule.
A smaller cabinet built around experience
St-Pierre Plamondon took his oath in the legislature’s Red Room on Wednesday, in front of former premiers, supporters and family, then presented a cabinet of 22 ministers, along with a president and a whip. The team has nine women and 14 men, including the premier, and is smaller than the CAQ’s 28-minister cabinet — a cut tied to his campaign pledge to shrink government, trim bureaucracy and rein in spending.
“Look at the quality of my team. We were only three (legislature members) last election,” he said.
Several key files went to seasoned hands. Nicolas Marceau returns as finance minister, a post he held from 2012 to 2014 under former premier Pauline Marois, who attended the ceremony. Joël Arseneau takes education, Pascal Bérubé takes culture, and Alain Therrien, a veteran of both the PQ and the Bloc Québécois, becomes president of the treasury board. Justice Minister Marie-Claude Sarrazin, a lawyer and former inquiry prosecutor, also carries interprovincial relations, anglophone relations, the fight against racism, LGBTQ+ issues, access to information and secularism.
Catherine Gentilcore was named deputy premier, immigration minister and government parliamentary leader. Marie-Karlynn Laflamme becomes health minister, tasked with carrying out the PQ promise to abolish Santé Québec. Nicolas Girard takes transport, Stéphane Paquet takes the economy and Montreal, and former Amos mayor Sébastien D’Astous fills a new government efficiency position.
The premier keeps the homelessness file for himself
St-Pierre Plamondon appointed himself minister responsible for homelessness and called the file an immediate priority. His first commitment was money for municipalities so they can prepare to support unhoused people through the winter.
He moved on it within two days. On Friday, joined by Mental Health and Social Services Minister Camille Pellerin-Forget, Paquet and Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada at Accueil Bonneau in Montreal, he announced $28 million in emergency homelessness funding as winter approaches — the new government’s first major spending decision.
Housekeeping first, a referendum later
The new premier has been plain about his order of business: fix the province’s finances and deliver services before sovereignty takes centre stage. Quebec’s current fiscal plan requires the multi-billion-dollar deficit to be eliminated by 2030, and the PQ has pledged to freeze provincial legislators’ salaries until the budget is balanced.
The sovereignty project is built into the cabinet itself, though. Gentilcore is also minister responsible for Quebec independence, charged with preparing the ground for the promised referendum. St-Pierre Plamondon has said the vote will be held once U.S. President Donald Trump is out of the White House. Polls still put support for independence at about 30 per cent, low by historical standards — one reason the file is sequenced behind bread-and-butter delivery.
The change of government closes a long CAQ chapter. François Legault announced his resignation in January, and Christine Fréchette led the party into an Oct. 5 election it lost so heavily that it won no seats at all. The road here ran through that resignation announcement in January, the two-person CAQ leadership race that followed, and a PQ rallying around independence at its convention.
A minority government from its first day
The PQ won 59 seats on Oct. 5, five short of the 64 needed for a majority in the 127-seat assembly, and recounts were under way in two ridings where PQ candidates finished second. The Liberals, under Charles Milliard, form the official Opposition with 40 seats, the Conservatives hold 19 and Québec solidaire holds 9.
That arithmetic shapes everything ahead. Gentilcore’s job includes negotiating with the opposition parties whose votes the government will need to pass legislation and survive confidence votes.
A ceremony that broke with the Crown
The swearing-in also made history. For the first time, Quebec’s lieutenant-governor, Manon Jeannotte, was not present, at St-Pierre Plamondon’s request. The government’s general secretary presided, and Jeannotte signed the appointment documents at her office immediately after. St-Pierre Plamondon has condemned the monarchy as an archaic symbol in Quebec’s institutions and wants to defund the lieutenant-governor’s office, directing the money toward homelessness. The PQ’s members had already been sworn in the week before, pledging allegiance to the people of Quebec rather than the King, under a rule change that grew out of his own refusal in 2022 to swear allegiance to the monarch.
The new National Assembly is scheduled to resume sitting on Nov. 17, when the minority government’s promises — on the deficit, on homelessness, and eventually on a referendum — start facing votes.
