Assemblee nationale Quebec.

• Author: Lapointe, Johanne

The extensive hours of meeting at the Assembly took place from 26 May 1998 to 19 June 1998. During this period, the Assembly passed thirty-six Government bills - three of which were adopted within the framework of a motion to suspend rules of procedure - two private members' public bills and sixteen private bills. Among the more significant of these are the following:

With regard to health:

* the Tobacco Act, which proposes a body of rules to regulate the use, sale, advertising and promotion of tobacco and tobacco products. For example, the operators of restaurants of thirty-five seats or more where smoking is permitted will be required to set aside enclosed, ventilated smoking areas. All sales of tobacco to minors are prohibited as well as all direct and indirect sponsorship associated with a sports, cultural or social event. The bill provides for a transitional period for sponsorship contracts already in effect, and a subsidy may be granted to persons or bodies having proved to the Minister that they have renounced all sponsorship from the tobacco industry.

* the Act respecting Hema-Quebec and the haemovigilance committee, which covers the supply of blood and blood products as well as the product collection, processing and distribution operations. Hema-Quebec now replaces the Red Cross in Quebec.

With regard to employment:

* the Act respecting income support, employment assistance and social solidarity, which introduces, among other things, three financial assistance programmes and provides for information, vocational guidance and placement services in order to foster the economic and social autonomy of individuals and to assist individuals in their efforts to enter, re-enter or remain on the labour market.

With regard to the environment:

* the Act to provide for the protection of groundwater, under which no person will be authorized to establish facilities to extract groundwater, all or part of which is to be marketed for human consumption, in bottles or other containers, or to increase the rate of flow in facilities that extract groundwater, all or part of which is to be used for such purposes, above a certain rate of flow. This bill is of temporary application, since the provisions contained therein will cease to have effect on 1 January 1999 at the latest.

With regard to finance:

* the Act respecting the distribution of financial products and services - before which passage several consultations were held - which replaces the Act respecting market intermediaries. It creates a single financial services bureau, the Bureau des services financiers, whose mission is to protect the public, to issue to qualifying representatives a certificate authorizing them to act as representatives in insurance of persons, damage insurance agents or brokers, claims adjusters, financial planners, group savings plan representatives, investment contract representatives or scholarship plan representatives. Representatives will be required to pursue their activities for a firm which much register with the Bureau. Every legal person having an establishment in Quebec may register as a firm to offer financial products and services through representatives, including deposit institutions such as trust companies and credit unions. Finally, certain insurance products, such as travel insurance, vehicle rental insurance and credit and...