Not surprisingly, the Legault government’s budget update on Tuesday left opposition parties wanting more. Québec solidaire (QS), among others, judges the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) as “cheap” and particularly criticizes it for not doing enough to help starving food banks.
There are fires to put out everywhere right now: in housing, in the real estate market, in homelessness, in public transport… And what is the CAQ doing right now? They are waiting for it to rain, said MP Christine Labrie right at the start in response to Finance Minister Eric Girard’s economic statement.
At his side, his colleague Haroun Bouazzi accused the CAQ of greed, which, he said, does not deign to give food banks the $18 million they are urgently demanding to respond to demand as the holidays approach.
“We’re talking about 10 million on the table,” he emphasized. This is cheap”; I don’t see any other word.
However, in the question period that followed, Minister Girard assured that he would take the necessary follow-up measures. “If 8 million are missing, Madam President, we will be happy to find them,” he declared. We won’t play politics with this.
According to the minister, the difference is due to the fact that the Quebec Food Banks Network’s request, which was originally $10 million, was recently increased by $8 million when the economic statement was prepared.
According to QS, the government would not have had such a tight financial framework if it had not granted $1.7 billion in tax cuts in its last budget.
Greater freedom of action today, for example, might allow it to more easily find common ground with union members in the public sector, noted Haroun Bouazzi.
“Between this tax cut and functioning public services and good pay for the civil servants who take care of us, our sick and our children, it’s obviously a bad choice for us,” he explained.
The CAQ has lost control, say the Liberals
The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) also complained on Tuesday that the CAQ government had little room for maneuver.
The interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay, criticizes him, among other things, for spending irrationally in recent years, in particular by sending checks to Quebecers twice since last year, namely an initial payment of $500, then one another from $400 to $600.
Prime Minister Legault, Mr. Tanguay believes, has simply lost control of public finances. According to him, Quebec’s budget would be balanced today if the Liberals had remained in power after the 2018 general election.
Fearing for the sustainability of Quebec’s public finances, the official opposition is demanding that members of the Public Accounts Committee be able to study the government’s budget policies as quickly as possible.
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Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay also believes the CAQ is “wearing rose-colored glasses” when it predicts a recession would have little impact on the return to a balanced budget in 2027-2028.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Jacques Boissinot
Less critically, the Parti Québécois (PQ) has addressed a number of blind spots in Minister Girard’s budget update. Its leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, particularly regretted that house prices had risen by 64% since the CAQ came to power.
An entire generation will no longer have access to property because it is completely unaffordable in relation to their salaries, he emphasized on Tuesday, referring to nothing less than a breach of the social contract.
Like the QS, the PQ believes that the government’s proposal to fund the construction of 8,000 social and affordable housing units over five years will not be enough to meet demand.
It will never correct the delay caused by the CAQ burying its head in the sand for years by saying there was no housing crisis, the PQ leader said.
With information from The Canadian Press