Quebec’s CAQ government is racing a June 12 deadline with 19 bills still on the order paper, including major proposals on the constitution, ridings and energy drinks.
Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette’s government is heading into the final week of the National Assembly session with 19 bills still on the order paper, leaving only days to decide which high-stakes measures can pass before the summer break.
The session is scheduled to wrap up Friday, June 12, and it is the last legislative sitting before the provincial election set for Oct. 5. The compressed calendar means several bills may not become law now and could instead return as campaign promises in the fall. Fréchette acknowledged the tight timeline at the start of the five-week session, saying, “It’s a short period, but we’re ready for it.”
Among the most closely watched proposals is Bill 1, which would create a Quebec constitution. The measure has drawn criticism from legal experts, civil liberties groups, First Nations leaders and opposition parties. Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette has said he is still working to have it adopted, arguing Quebec needs stronger legal and constitutional tools to defend the French language, secularism and the integrity of its territory.
Another contentious bill would reshape the electoral map by raising the number of provincial ridings from 125 to 127. The proposal was introduced after an independent electoral boundaries commission produced a map that would have removed one riding in the Gaspé Peninsula and one in eastern Montreal while creating two new districts in the Laurentians and Centre-du-Québec. The commission objected publicly, saying elected officials were seeking to replace an independent process with a map shaped by political motives.
The government is also trying to move Bill 4, known as Gabby’s Law, which would allow police to share information about a person’s violent criminal history with an intimate partner deemed to be at risk. The bill would also tighten rules in the provincial correctional system for sex offenders and domestic abusers. Some advocates have welcomed the proposal, while Quebec Native Women has called for more consultation to ensure the bill protects First Nations and Inuit women and girls.
Bill 9, tabled by Health Minister Sonia Bélanger, would ban the sale of energy drinks to people under 16, including through online sales and vending machines. A person under 16 who breaks the proposed rules would face a $100 fine. The push intensified after the death of 15-year-old Zachary Miron in 2024; a coroner’s report said the combination of his ADHD medication and caffeine likely caused an arrhythmia that led to his sudden death.
The energy drink bill may be difficult to fast-track because unanimous consent is required. Conservative MNA Maïté Blanchette Vézina has said she does not want the legislature to rush a measure restricting or banning the sale of the drinks and wants further debate in the fall. Quebec Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime said special consultations should include experts, doctors, pharmacists, industry representatives and convenience store owners who would have to enforce the ban. Québec Solidaire, the Quebec Liberals and the Parti Québécois have voiced support for a crackdown.
Other files in the backlog include Bill 8, an expansion of the Charter of the French Language to adult education and vocational training. English-language school boards have criticized the proposal, which would require an estimated 27,000 students to transfer to the francophone system, and the opposition Liberals have come out against it. The bill is considered unlikely to pass before the session ends.
Bill 38, introduced after the killing of a Montreal convenience store clerk, would lower the legal threshold for involuntary hospitalization by changing the standard from a “grave and immediate danger” to situations where “a danger exists.” The government has already abandoned one measure, Bill 20, a housing reform that faced strong opposition from the co-operative housing sector over a proposed centralized tenant registry and financial penalties.
Opposition parties have accused the government of trying to move too much too quickly. Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said earlier in the session that lawmakers were “not far enough in the process to do serious and rigorous work on those issues.”
With the Friday deadline approaching, the government’s immediate challenge is deciding which bills to push to the finish line and which fights will be left for the election campaign.
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