Claude Bechard has returned to work as Quebec’s minister of agriculture, food and fisheries while continuing treatments for pancreatic cancer, La terre de chez nous reports.
The Quebec farm journal reported Tuesday on its website that a “visibly thinner and frail” Bechard had officially resumed his duties that day. Revenue Minister Robert Dutil had handled the ag portfolio until now on an interim basis.
Bechard, 40, was hospitalized in January with a pancreatic tumour obstructing his small intestine, and had surgery the following month to remove a related intestinal blockage.
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He had been previously sidelined for five months after he was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2008, during a stint as natural resources minister.
The MNA for Kamouraska-Temiscouata in Quebec’s Bas-St-Laurent region since 1997, Bechard also handles the ministerial portfolios for Canadian intergovernmental affairs and democratic reform.
Bechard was quoted by the newspaper as saying he’s capable of doing the job while undergoing daily treatments, adding he’s not so “stupid” as to leave his colleagues “in trouble.”
However, he returns to a portfolio under fire, as farmers led by the influential Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) protest planned changes to farm income stabilization insurance (ASRA), a key provincial ag income support program.
Quebec’s ag finance agency, La Financiere agricole de Quebec, announced plans in April to try and stem the costs of ASRA by capping and, where necessary, prorating the total payout to producers in a given year.
It also plans to calculate payouts based on models using what are considered to be the most efficient 75 per cent of farms in the province.
Also, according to La terre, the government is supposed to introduce a new agriculture policy this spring and is still expected to do so before the end of the assembly’s spring session on June 11.
Bechard’s return is also expected to improve the governing Liberal party’s slim majority against potential threats from opposition parties to force an election.
Premier Jean Charest’s Liberals hold 66 of 125 seats in the provincial assembly after booting MNA Tony Tomassi from caucus. But the government couldn’t risk MNAs being away from the assembly with Bechard sidelined and speaker Yvon Vallieres unable to vote except in a tie.
