QUEBEC – Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has been actively courting Coalition Avenir Québec voters and its leader Premier François Legault, but on Thursday Scheer openly disagreed with the CAQ’s Bill 21, which would ban the wearing of religious signs.

“I can tell you, as prime minister I would never present a bill like that at the federal level,” Scheer told reporters after delivering a speech to the Quebec City chamber of commerce.

“Our party will always defend individual freedoms,” he said.

“I think a liberal, a society based on fundamental freedoms and openness, must always protect fundamental individual rights and should not in any way impede people from expressing themselves and in any way by infringing on those fundamental rights.”

Asked about the inclusion in Bill 21 of two notwithstanding clauses, to override guarantees in the Canadian and Quebec human rights charters, Scheer was more circumspect.

“The Quebec government has made a choice and now it is up the elected members in Quebec to determine the fate of the bill,” he said.

With the date for the next federal election set for Oct. 21, Scheer has been hoping to make inroads in Quebec, where Trudeau’s Liberals won 40 of the 78 seats in the province in the 2015 election, to 12 for the Conservatives.

In fact, in 2015, Quebec was the only province in Canada where Conservatives made gains, going from five seats in the 2011 election to 12, concentrated in the Quebec City region.

As well, Legault’s right-of-centre CAQ swept to power in a provincial election last October, at the expense of the Quebec Liberals.

Since forming his government, Legault has been calling on the federal parties to meet Quebec’s demands for a single Quebec-collected income tax, ending the practice of Quebecers filing separate federal and provincial income tax returns.

The Quebec premier also wants support from Ottawa for his goal of reducing immigration to the province by 25 per cent.

Scheer supports Legault’s call for a single income tax return and a temporary reduction in the number of immigrants Quebec takes in.

The province and Quebec’s cities also have a list of infrastructure and economic development projects and want the federal government to commit money to those projects.

Legault has said Trudeau will pay a political price in the election if he ignores Quebec’s demands.

In January, Trudeau spoke to the Quebec City chamber of commerce, saying no to allowing Quebec to collect income tax for the federal government and noting that with Quebec’s current manpower shortage, this is not the time to reduce immigration.

Trudeau turned down calls to award the Chantier Davie shipyard across the St. Lawrence from the capital a contract to build the Obelix, a proposed sister ship to the navy supply ship Asterix, delivered by Davie on time and on budget.

And the prime minister did not even mention the proposed third link crossing of the St. Lawrence, which was a key CAQ election promise.

For Scheer’s Quebec City chamber of commerce speech this Thursday, at about 200, the crowd was half the size for Trudeau’s address.

But the Conservative leader received wave after wave of warm applause, as he made commitments to ensure Davie gets “the contracts it deserves,” while expressing support for the third link and port expansion projects.

Scheer recalled Trudeau affirming in his January chamber of commerce speech that the Canadian navy does not need a second new supply ship.

Scheer promised that a Conservative government would take up Davie on its proposal to build a twin supply ship. He also told his chamber of commerce audience that he would work with the province on building the third link.

But he cautioned that another project for the region, that has the support of Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume, the repainting of the Quebec Bridge, would be more difficult.

Completed in 1917, and owned by CN Rail, the estimated cost of repainting the rusted bridge has risen from $400 million to $560 million.

“There is no magic solution,” Scheer said.

While Scheer supports construction of a third link, he is less enthusiastic about federal funding for Quebec City’s proposed $3-billion tramway.

Mayor Labeaume has expressed concern that federal money for transit infrastructure will go to Montreal’s Métro expansion and Ottawa will renege on its commitment to pay $1.2 billion for Quebec City’s tramway.

“I have often heard people in the greater Quebec City region saying the greatest priority is the third link, a connection between the two shores,” Scheer told reporters.

“We’re listening to the needs of people.”