The time is for great financial gloom.
Depending on the indices, the stock market shows declines of between 13 and 30%. The value of negotiable debt and other fixed income securities fell by 10% to 19%. Interest rates rose by more than 3 percentage points. Property prices could fall by more than 15%. Real GDP growth is becoming increasingly weak. The cost of living has skyrocketed.
And the icing on the sundae? The likelihood of a recession soon is very high. Not only here, but also in Canada, USA, Europe etc etc.
During this period, political party leaders sowed electoral gifts to woo voters.
Too bad there are only two days left until the election. It would have been necessary to mobilize to require the five chiefs to redesign their respective financial frameworks according to the new economic and financial reality.
The economic forecasts on which Treasury Secretary Eric Girard relied to prepare the Québec government’s pre-election report on finances now appear to be overly optimistic.
This indicates that the income (taxes, levies, etc.) listed in the pre-election report for the five financial years from financial year 2022/23 to financial year 2026/27 is probably too high.
After the plethora of electoral gifts from political parties, it is evident that the budget balance presented in the parties’ budgets is no longer tenable, as everyone’s expected revenues will be lower than their projections.
LEGAULT’S BLESS
It’s insane what most political parties have presented to us as staggering increases in government spending.
However, I blame the outgoing Prime Minister, François Legault.
Why ? Because according to all polls he has a 99.9 percent chance of staying in power, he distances his opponents by a long way.
Mr Legault and his economic trio, consisting of Finance Minister Éric Girard, Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel and Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, had a responsibility and duty to present a financial framework of the “good family man”, that is, at the level of our financial Possibilities.
By providing $25.7 billion in electoral gifts over 5 years, the formation of François Legault’s outgoing government was imprudent as it weakened the state’s finances.
THE LIBERALS, NO BETTER…
People will tell me Dominique Anglade’s Liberals are worse off when their electoral commitments are $31.1 billion.
The difference between Anglade’s Liberals and Legault’s Caquistes? Despite the dynamism of their leader, the Liberals have no chance of regaining power after this campaign.
The Liberals may have promised the moon, but the mass of voters don’t care politically, and that’s why the Liberal Party is currently struggling to survive.
Among Ms. Anglade’s relevant commitments, note the “Seniority Allowance” of $2,000 per year tax-free that would be paid to people over 70 who are not living in long-term accommodation. Cost of this action: $10 billion over 5 years.
THE PQUISTE GOOD IDEA
To help the households hardest hit by the skyrocketing cost of living, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Québécois had the brilliant idea of offering a one-time financial grant of US$1,200 this year to people living under US$50,000. win dollars. Individuals earning between $50,000 and $80,000 would be eligible for a one-time allowance of $750.
This purchasing power grant equates to a spend of $6.3 billion. There is also a one-time spending of $900 million to double the Solidarity Tax Credit for low-income households.
This type of one-time financial assistance, which the CAQ also offers ($600 for people earning less than $50,000 and $400 for those earning between $50,000 and $100,000), seems to me to be much more relevant than a tax break or taxes.
THE CONSERVATIVE SHOCK
Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party stands out from other parties by offering Quebec voters the opportunity to massively clean up the government’s finances.
Over the course of five fiscal years, the Duhaime Conservatives would scrap a number of government programs to save a total of $31.7 billion.
In addition to these drastic cuts, Duhaime promises to cut taxes and tariffs by $24.4 billion.
Result: Of all the parties, only the Conservative Party would end the five fiscal years with a “better” budget situation than in the pre-election report.
Q.$.
With Québec Solidaire and his co-spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the “rich” would go through the tax press.
And at QS, once our income exceeds $100,000, we enter the elite category of the “rich”.
These “rich” would suffer an additional $5.1 billion in taxes over the next four years.
In addition, all those who have a net worth greater than $1 million will be included in the “great fortunes and great estates.”
And to help a Quebec “government” solidaire fund its $36 billion election commitments, these “lucky” people would be subjected to a new tax rip-off that would net the state coffers nearly $10 billion over four years.
