Philippe Couillard's summer vacation cut short, faces early test

Summertime, andthe livingiseasy. ButQuebec's political class clearly didn't get the memo.

At the tail end of the dog days, the Liberal government suddenly found itself in crisis management mode.

Its scandal-plagued transport minister, Jacques Daoust, finally ran out of lives. In the end, though, it wasn't his work at transport that cost him his job.

Sure he provoked an internal rebellion over his proposed reforms to Quebec's taxi laws, and sure his staff appeared to turn a blind eye to problems within the ministry of transport. But none of that was enough for Premier Philippe Couillard to cut him loose.

No, Daoust's undoing was insisting that he knew nothing about Investissement Qubec's (IQ)decision to sell the province's stake in Rona to an American corporate giant while he was minister of the economy in 2014.

• How many fires can Jacques Daoust fight before he gets burned?

• Jacques Daoust steps down from transport, leaves politics

Rock and a hard place

The transaction between Rona and Lowe's, admittedly, put theLiberals in a tough spot: avowed free-marketers on the one hand, and sensitivityto the economic nationalism evoked by their rivals on the other.

They opted to wash their hands of the deal, or so they claimed, portraying it as a consensualtransaction occurring outside its sphere of influence.

The Parti Qubcois wanted the government to use its stake in Ronato block the takeover bid by refusing to sell its shares to Lowe's.

That stake, after all, had been acquired during a previous takeover bid byLowe's in 2012.Jean Charest's Liberals had stepped in then to prevent the homegrown hardware chainfrom falling into American hands.

But when it emerged that it was too late, that IQhad already sold its shares, then-PQ leader Pierre Karl Pladeau was livid.

• Laurent Lessard gets the transport hot seat

Daoust, who as economy minister was responsible for IQ when the shares were sold, just shrugged and said he wasn't consulted about the transaction.

The firstproblem, forDaoust, was that minutes of a 2014IQ board meeting showed he was present while a discussion of the shares took place. Daoust parried by questioning the accuracy of the minutes.

But a fatal blow was struck last week when emails emerged that showed IQ executives asking Daoust's chief of staff whether the minister was OK with it selling its Rona shares to Lowe's.

The chief of staff, Pierre Ouellet, replied"OK" after saying he would check with his boss.

• JacquesDaoust'schief of staff gave OK toRonasale

High drama?

On his way out the door, Daoust kept insisting he didn't know about the sale of the shares. The opposition interpretsthat denialas meaning one of threethings:

• Daoust is lying.
• A political staffer took it upon himself to authorize a $144 million transaction.
• Or, Ouellet went aroundDaoust and sought approval directly from the premier's office.

The Coalition Avenir Qubec wants to call Daoust,Ouellet and Ronato testify before a parliamentary committee on Thursday in an effort to establish which is most likely.

In the past the Liberals have used their majority to veto witnesses they don't want testifying before committees. Couillard was evasive on Saturday when pressed about whether he would let Ouelletgive his version of events.

"It's upto parliamentarians to decide," he said. But when pressed further, he saidhe would have "no problem"with Ouellet appearing before the committee.

If indeedthe opposition is able to callOuellet et al. before the committee, it holds out the prospect of high drama. We'll know then that the political season has started in earnest.

• For Quebec Liberals, a summer to recover from self-inflicted wounds