Eric Girard’s mistake with his transfer to the Los Angeles Kings continues to grow. Yesterday, The newspaper informed us that, according to Luc Robitaille, this team’s trip to Quebec would cost less than expected because many tickets were sold.
In other words, we are being screwed, but less so than expected. And we should be happy.
Mr. Girard’s unforgivable mistake is not so much that he gave a wealthy foreign hockey team $5 to $7 million to come to Quebec and play useless games. Everyone can make mistakes.
His unforgivable mistake is that he insists and signs. In doing so, he shows that, despite all his diplomas, he does not have the most important quality of a minister: judgment.
What’s worse is that his mistake has become emblematic of a major CAQ trend: giving our money to foreign companies under the pretense that this wasted money will one day bring big profits.
Will be rolled
Mr. Girard explains that he acted impulsively, that he is a big hockey fan. Possible. But then he put his feelings above his reason. That’s not what you expect from a finance minister.
Mr. Girard is unaware that most of this money is spent outside Quebec. He doesn’t understand that the economic benefits of these games will, at best, come at the expense of other activities in Quebec.
Mr. Girard doesn’t think it’s unreasonable to give so much money to a very wealthy foreign organization while many sports, arts or community organizations in Quebec are told their coffers are empty.
Mr. Girard does not understand that this type of waste of money is very badly perceived by his public service, which he asks to reduce salaries with the effect of inflation.
Worrying
Mr. Girard’s poor judgment hits François Legault and the CAQ.
Was it Mr. Girard who proposed tax cuts last year when the economy was in an inflationary phase and a slowdown was looming this year? This tax relief money now has to be borrowed, often from foreigners. Ultimately, this will cost taxpayers more than the original tax cut.
Is he the one who approved the pharaonic subsidies for foreign companies in the battery sector without weighing the opportunity cost, i.e. how much those billions would have brought if invested in other sectors, including education?
Was he the one who accepted without batting an eyelid that Hydro-Québec had sold our surplus electricity to the United States at a bargain price, forcing us to make massive and urgent investments in electricity production?
The grant to the Kings has become the perfect example of the CAQ’s lack of economic judgment. Recent polls show that Quebecers understand this.
