POLITICS. Beauce MP Richard Lehoux intends to make cell service in the region one of his top priorities for the coming year. He intends to emphasize the importance of once and for all optimizing the service throughout the Beauce territory, paying particular attention to the problems of public safety.

“Of the forty communities I cover, there isn’t a community that doesn’t have an area that doesn’t have an issue or weak signal. The Internet file is more or less dead because Quebec has chosen to give it priority,” he recalls.

While farming is often his hobby, Mr. Lehoux regularly steps in to defend issues affecting the rural environment. “Every time I have the opportunity, I should emphasize the importance of small communities across Canada. Mobile communications is one aspect. Also to the development of three-phase, so these small communities must have tools to convince companies to settle there and be adapted to the realities of 2023.”

severity and delays

Mr. Lehoux reminded that the district offices are the transmission line between citizens and officials and do the work that officials should be doing. His role remains more or less the same, bringing the concerns experienced here to Ottawa. “There are things that people notice less because the provincial government has more power, other than certain issues like immigration or labor insurance ringing our office bell. »

Much like at any level of government, bureaucracy is a nuisance at the federal level, confirms Mr. Lehoux. “We regularly intervene in the Chamber to address this situation, but nothing changes. They tell us they hire regularly but it doesn’t show. We’d love to see the machine unclogged, the elimination of some molds, but the 12 works of Asterix are still there. Also, not all officials are back in person. We manage to have some contacts in certain files,” he summarizes.

He also recalls that during the passport crisis, departments that were less busy were emptied rather than recruited, except that once the crisis ended, staff were not reassigned to Labor Insurance or others, which has led to other crises elsewhere, at Revenue, Employment Insurance and other. “Even if the delays on the Internet are estimated at 20 to 30 days, in reality it is three months. Every day people cry on the phone. We need to constantly talk about need to get things moving. We’re investigating various files, but we’re putting out a lot of fires right now. »

However, Mr. Lehoux is far from wanting to criticize the employees on site. “We’re not saying federal agents aren’t working, but they’re so wrapped up in documentation. The efficiency isn’t there and we’ve always shoveled forward. With immigration, due to the cumbersome nature of the apparatus, we have changed ministers twice and the delays are getting longer and longer. »

While he doesn’t expect any major announcements for the county in the coming weeks, he’s pleased to see a federal program meeting many of the requirements set by New Horizons. For organizations that have submitted applications, positive things could soon happen in this regard. “These are not large amounts, but are greatly appreciated by the organizations that receive them. Because the program is annual, some may choose to carry out their project over several years. Some have had difficulties returning since the pandemic, having lost several of their volunteers. These sums will support them,” he concludes.