Quebec wants to make the most of its constitutional powers with help from a new committee

Quebec has mandated six experts to examine how to take full advantage of its powers outlined in Canada's Constitution, particularly for matters related to immigration, language and secularism.

The creation of the advisory committee comes on the last day of the spring parliamentary session, and before Premier François Legault meets with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday.

Both leaders are expected to discuss Quebec's demands concerning immigration, namely Legault's call to change the federal international mobility program, through which 80 per cent of Quebec's temporary foreign workers are selected.

During question period Friday, Legault said the committee would be tasked with examining the consequences of Ottawa's «encroachments» on Quebec's priorities, alluding to measures announced in federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's last budget, which touch on health care, education and housing — areas of provincial jurisdiction.

«The federal government acts as if Quebecers were not able to govern themselves in the areas of Quebec's jurisdiction agreed in the federative pact,» Legault said in the Salon Bleu.

The Coalition Avenir Québec government's latest expert committee will be chaired by former MNA Sébastien Proulx, who served in the National Assembly for the Action Démocratique du Québec from 2007 to 2008 and for the Quebec Liberals from 2015 to 2019, and by lawyer Guillaume Rousseau, who is known for defending Quebec's secularism law before the courts.

Other members of the committee include Martine Tremblay, who was chief of staff to former premier René Lévesque; Luc Godbout, research chair in taxation and public finance of the Université de Sherbrooke; Catherine Mathieu, political science professor at Université du