Quebec premier courts newly elected U.S. officials

The Premier of Quebec says he sent out 59 letters to the newly elected U.S. Senators and Governors and he's stepping on the toes of the federal government in the process. Katsi Sine is on the story for us. And Katsi, the Premier and the leader of the Bloc Québécois held a news conference. They say they're joining forces to try to get some relief from U.S. tariffs for Quebec. Because it's urgent to find solutions, but the premier of Quebec, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon, didn't say that he was starting bilateral trade negotiations with the U.S. It's not his goal, at least not for now. He said that he'll do what he needs to do to defend the province's interests, to try to find a way to reduce the burden on companies, de-escalate these tariffs, and Quebec has all the rights to send those letters to U.S. politicians. Take a listen to the message he was sending to Mark Carney today. I think Mr. Carney would like to be alone on the ice. And I'm going to be on the ice and I will defend Quebec by all means. And he said that if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. I will never let Quebec be on the menu. And I think everybody needs to get used to that. But you'll see that Prime Minister Mark Carney doesn't like to see too many cooks involved, especially in trade negotiations. Take a listen. In a negotiation, it's always a good idea to have only one negotiator. And that's the competence of the federal government for this reason. And meanwhile, Cathy, with a separatist government in Quebec and one in Ottawa, Mark Carney is dealing with a fair bit of pushback on multiple levels. It's quite possible. And we can mention immigration, homelessness, Ottawa will invest more than 11 billion dollars to end homelessness over the next decade. And that includes housing, addiction facilities. Quebec's premier wants to tackle this issue and will hold a summit, but doesn't want criteria. To spend the federal money, it will certainly be a topic of discussion between Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon and Mark Carney during their first meeting in person in Cambodia at the Francophonie Summit this weekend. Cathy, thanks so much.