Philippe Couillard became Quebec’s Liberal premier this past April on a promise to deal with les vraies affaires – the real issues.

Couillard won after the Parti Québécois (PQ) government called an early election, seeking to press ahead with toughening Quebec’s language laws and adopting the PQ’s “charter of Quebec values.”

Couillard dismissed the PQ plans as out of touch. He said the true PQ aim was a third referendum on independence – a notion that PQ premier Pauline Marois laughed off, saying she had no such timetable.

But with about two-thirds of Quebecers telling pollsters they don’t want a new referendum, the election ended in a PQ rout.

Now, with new emphasis on reducing public debt and balancing the province’s books, Couillard’s agenda means the fall session of the Quebec National Assembly will be dominated by what would seem to be a much tamer issue: pension reform.

Pensions, yes. Tame, no.

Already, in protest against the Couillard government’s Bill 3, which rolls back municipal pension benefits that Quebec cities say they can no longer afford, Montreal’s city hall was occupied recently by municipal employees, including firefighters. They physically disrupted a council session, strewing councillors’ papers on the floor as police stood by, looking on. Although the police were roundly criticized for allowing the fracas to escalate, they claim they had no orders to intervene.

And the protests are continuing. Police across the province now are wearing camouflage pants and red ball caps, symbolizing their discontent with Bill 3.

And city-owned vehicles – including undercover police cars – bear stickers calling for a negotiated settlement, not the imposed solution of Bill 3.

Unlike Ontario, where the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System manages one pension plan for 440,000 municipal employees in the province, each of Quebec’s municipalities negotiates separate pension arrangements with its police, firefighters and other municipal unions.

Muddying the matter further, unions opposed to Bill 3 say their members had settled for lower salary gains in return for better pension benefits.

Ironically, Bill 3 is the Couillard government’s response to a campaign, kicked off by two city mayors – Quebec City’s Régis Labeaume, who enlisted Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre – calling for legislation to permit municipalities to reduce city contributions to employees’ pensions to 50% from as high as 70%.

The municipalities estimate their defined-benefits plans face deficits as high as $4 billion, blaming lower than anticipated investment returns. The unions respond that the cities had kept pension surpluses or suspended contributions in better times, and also say the shortfall is closer to $2.5 billion.

For the Couillard government, siding with the mayors of Quebec’s two largest cities makes political sense, although winning this battle means a showdown with Quebec unions that could prove disruptive.

Still, it’s the first big test for Couillard’s taking care of business agenda – a test that he can’t afford to lose.

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