The Parti Québécois and Québec Solidaire will both be recognized as official parties when the National Assembly is recalled, even though both parties are short of the formal threshold for official party status.
Under the legislature's rules, a party needs 12 seats to be recognized as an official party.
With that title comes a pay rise (and perks like a ministerial Chrysler) for the partys' parliamentary leader, as well as a larger staff and funds to conduct policy research. Official parties also have more time to ask questions during Question Period.
Government House Leader Simon Jolin-Barrette said Thursday that an agreement was reached between the CAQ and the PLQ to grant the two separatist parties the recognition.
The CAQ's move stands in stark contrast to the way other incoming governments have handled the thorny issue of what happens to the parties that didn't do so well in the last election.
Following the spring election in Ontario, the provincial Liberals there fell one seat short of the eight seats required for official status. For a while, there was speculation that new Premier Doug Ford would extend party status to the OLP as an act of goodwill.
Not only did that not happen, the party actually recently announced plans to raise the number of seats needed for official status, to twelve (the current threshold for party status here in Quebec).