Lionel Carmant Returns To The Caq

QUEBEC — Former social services minister Lionel Carmant is returning to the Coalition Avenir Québec caucus.

After quitting the caucus last October to protest measures targeting medical specialists, Carmant is to return Wednesday, sources confirm.

He and Premier François Legault will make the joint announcement Wednesday, the same day as Legault is to chair his last meeting of the Quebec cabinet and attend his last meeting of the CAQ caucus in his role as premier.

Legault announced in Janurary he is stepping down.

The move is seen as a gesture of friendship between Legault and Carmant, who are close friends. Carmant was there when Legault founded the CAQ in 2011.

Sources said Carmant and Legault have agreed to move past their dispute. In October, Carmant quit the caucus in the heat of negotiations with Quebec’s medical specialists.

Legault had opted to play hardball with the doctors, tabling the controversial Bill 2 imposing salary and work conditions on physicians. Carmant, a medical specialist, quit because of the terms of the bill.

At the time, Carmant said the law was causing friction at home too. His wife and daughter are both medical specialists.

On Wednesday, Legault told reporters he had kept the lines of communication open with Carmant, who has been sitting as an independent in the legislature.

Carmant also appeared Saturday at the second and final CAQ leadership debate in Laval, announcing he would support candidate Christine Fréchette.

Legault noted the clauses of the law which irritated Carmant and the specialists have since disappeared. Despite that move, there is no agreement with the specialists.

Legault also lost his health minister Christian Dubé in the wake of the specialists’ mess after the premier walked back the measures in Bill 2.

There is no sign Dubé will return. He continues to sit as an independent.

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