The Government of Quebec has had some pretty vigorous debates with the Barreau de Montréal. We may join the parade if, by some misfortune, we do not manage to agree, but we seem to be on the right track for the time being.
The Barreau de Montréal has clearly said that it would attack the process by arguing that it is unconstitutional. Discussions were held and, in late 2015, the Department of Justice made commitments. As those commitments have not been completely fulfilled, discussions have been renewed.
Recently, a committee made up of representatives of the Barreau du Québec, Barreau de Montréal and the Department of Justice met to discuss improving the process. We know very well that the constitutionality of a process will not be decided in a committee. However, we asked ourselves what practical and concrete solutions we could adopt in the short term to improve the process and potentially avoid this debate on the constitutionality of the process as we know it in Quebec.
So commitments have been made, including the commitment to hire anglophone civil lawyers to translate statutes. We are not talking about professional translators, but about anglophone civil lawyers. That could improve the outcome. That idea has been put forward. It has not been fully addressed, as it has to go through the Treasury Board, as well, but the Department of Justice has made a certain commitment.
A commitment was also made to hire jurilinguists on an ad hoc basis, in cases of important pieces of legislation. However, co-drafting is currently not planned owing to the province's resources.