Anglo groups network holds rare meeting with premier

Couillard holds rare meeting with anglo groups The Quebec Community Groups Network representing dozens of English organizations had a rare meeting with Premier Philippe Couillard Tuesday.

The Quebec Community Groups Network was in Quebec City Tuesday for a rare private meeting with the premier.

The group, which represents dozens of English organizations across the province, also met MNAs at the National Assembly to discuss issues affecting the anglophone community.

“I hope it will be the first of a succession of meetings so that we can talk about their concerns,” said Premier Philippe Couillard. “I'll give you one example where the concerns obviously have been heard loud and clear. It's when we had to debate about school boards and school elections. I immediately saw that it was a very deep issue for the English-speaking community in Quebec and we had to treat this with utmost respect, which we did.”

QCGN vice-president Geoffrey Chambers said he felt the meeting was constructive.

“We sat with three members of the government and the premier today and we put forward our sense that the English-speaking community needs to be acknowledged and we got a positive response, so yes, there’s certainly a historic feeling of the community that it hasn’t gotten a positive response to all of its issues and problems, but today, we got a good reaction,” he said.

It was the QCGN's first meeting with a premier since Bernard Landry.