Facal first sought election to the Quebec legislature in the
1989 general election for the
Montreal division of
Dorion. He finished second against incumbent
Liberal Party candidate
Violette Trépanier, a minister in
Robert Bourassa's government. He was narrowly elected on his second attempt in the
1994 general election for the
Laval division of
Fabre. The Parti Québécois won a
majority government under
Jacques Parizeau's leadership, and Facal entered the legislative as a government
backbencher. From December 1994 to March 1996 he chaired the assembly's ''commission de l'éducation''. In 1995, he openly expressed scepticism about Premier Parizeau's strategy of holding a
referendum on sovereignty during the Parti Québécois's first full year in government. Lucien Bouchard succeeded Parizeau as Parti Québécois leader and
premier of Quebec on 26 January 1996, and appointed Facal as his
parliamentary secretary three days later. In the same year, he chaired a legislative committee that recommended downsizing in the Quebec civil service and the number of government agencies.
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Bouchard government Facal was promoted to cabinet on 23 September 1998, as
minister of Canadian intergovernmental affairs. He was re-elected with an increased majority in the
1998 general election, as the PQ won a second consecutive majority government under Bouchard's leadership. Facal recorded English-language and Spanish-language advertisements for his party during the campaign. He was kept in the intergovernmental affairs portfolio after the election and was also appointed as
minister responsible for the Outaouais on 15 December 1998. In 1998 and 1999, Facal took part in discussions with representatives of the
Canadian federal government and other provinces on a proposed
Social Union Framework Agreement for health, education, and social services. He indicated that Quebec would only accept the agreement if it recognized the province's right to opt out of specific programs with full financial compensation. The federal government ultimately concluded a deal with all provinces except Quebec in February 1999; Facal said that he could not sign the accord, as it included provisions for the federal government to oversee unilateral programs such as the
millennium scholarships and did not permit Quebec to opt out of future shared-cost programs. He later said that the social union agreement undermined any possibility that Quebec's distinctiveness could be recognized within the
Canadian constitution. Facal was a vocal opponent of the
Clarity Act introduced by
Stéphane Dion, the
minister of intergovernmental affairs in the federal government of
Jean Chrétien. Dion's act was designed to clarify the terms and conditions under which the government of Canada would negotiate with a provincial government in the event of a successful referendum on sovereignty. Among other things, the act gave the
House of Commons of Canada the right to determine if the referendum question and the popular mandate for sovereignty were sufficiently clear. Facal described the legislation as "anti-democratic" and exchanged public letters with Dion on the subject in late 1999. Facal introduced
counter-legislation to the Clarity Act in the Quebec legislature in December 1999. His legislation stated that a simple majority would be sufficient for a referendum victory on sovereignty, that Quebec's boundaries could not be changed except by Quebec's government and elected representatives, and that no other parliament or government could reduce the powers of the National Assembly. The
Grand Council of the Crees initially opposed this legislation on the grounds that it denied aboriginal people the same right of self-determination that was claimed for Quebec. Facal responded that it was not his government's wish "to exercise any form of domination over the
Crees" and revised the legislation to reflect this and other concerns. The revised version was approved by the National Assembly in December 2000, with Liberal legislators voting against it. Facal expressed scepticism toward federal
health minister Allan Rock's proposal to overhaul Canada's public health system in January 2000, saying that the effort was hypocritical after years of federal cutbacks.
Landry government Lucien Bouchard announced his resignation as Parti Québécois leader and premier in January 2001, and Facal was one of the first PQ legislators to support
Bernard Landry's successful bid to succeed him. When Landry became premier on 8 March 2001, he retained Facal as Canadian intergovernmental affairs minister and gave him additional responsibilities as
minister of citizenship and immigration. He was also given ministerial responsibility for Canadian francophones and Acadians living outside Quebec, while giving up responsibility for the Outaouais to
Sylvain Simard. The following month, Facal published a seventy-page book entitled
Le declin du federalisme canadien. In May 2001, Facal called on the Canadian government to give Quebec a greater role in citizenship ceremonies for new Canadians. He initially offered qualified support to the suggestion that Quebec should establish its own citizenship, but he later rejected it on the grounds that it was unnecessarily provocative and offered no concrete benefits. In the aftermath of the
September 11, 2001 attacks in
New York City and
Washington,
D.C., Facal indicated that Quebec would tighten procedures for issuing documents such as
birth certificates. He also expressed concern that Quebec immigrants of
Arab origin would be unfairly associated with
terrorism. "It's malicious and deplorable to insinuate there may be a terrorist lurking behind every Arab or
Muslim", he said in response to a critical
New York Times article. "I strongly denounce all such suggestions."
President of the Treasury Board Landry shuffled his cabinet on 30 January 2002, and named Facal as
president of the treasury board and
minister of state for administration and the public service. While holding this portfolio, Facal emerged as a prominent voice on the right wing of the Parti Québécois. Facal argued in June 2002 that the PQ should shift away from its
social democratic origins. Speaking at a news conference, he described the PQ's platform as being in some respects outdated, called for the party to shift focus from its traditional grassroots allies to a more
middle-class electorate, and said that the Quebec governance model had created high debt and undue dependence on the state. Premier Landry criticized Facal's remarks, defending his administration as "interventionist" with a mandate to ensure the province's wealth could be shared "between the regions, between the social classes, and between age groups." Despite this, Landry also defended Facal against accusations that he was too right-wing for the Parti Québécois, and Facal clarified that he had no intention of leaving the party. He was not disciplined and remained a member of cabinet. During the same period, Facal also criticized
Action démocratique du Québec leader
Mario Dumont for arguing that Quebec should dramatically scale back its government services and end employment security in the civil service. "We have to modernize the state for reasons of efficiency but we must not dismantle it for ideological reasons," Facal said, dismissing Dumont's plan as a simplistic solution to a complicated problem. He also noted that job security guarantees had been put in place to prevent workers from being influenced by partisan politics, adding that workers could still be dismissed for a poor job performance. In December 2002, Facal accepted a preliminary treasury board report that recommended a significant reduction in the size of cabinet and the elimination of several government agencies, some of which were described in the report as redundant. Facal did not run as a candidate in the
2003 general election. He said that his decision was not based on ideological differences with Landry's government and added that he would "doubtlessly" return to politics in the future. The Parti Québécois was defeated by
Jean Charest's Liberals in the election that followed, and Facal formally resigned from cabinet with rest of the Landry ministry on 29 April 2003. He later wrote for the
Journal de Montréal and returned to teaching sociology and management at the
Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montréal. ==Out of the legislature==