Quebec Budget 2024 | The “King of debt” pays for his electoral checks, according to the opposition

François Legault has been compared in turn by the opposition parties to a “King of debt” who poorly spent past surpluses, in particular by distributing electoral checks, with a budget which left the housing crisis aside. and public transportation.

Liberal Party of Quebec

The “King of debt and deficits”

The Quebec Liberal Party is not afraid of bringing back bad memories to voters by praising the “budgetary rigor” that it imposed on the Quebec state between 2014 and 2018. Interim leader Marc Tanguay favorably compares this period to lax management of public funds from the CAQ, which will increase the public debt by several tens of billions with its deficits.

“The CAQ spent like sailors on the run. And we don’t even have the services today. Everything is worse,” lamented Mr. Tanguay.

He asserted that Prime Minister François Legault is the “King of debt and deficits,” with a nod to the controversial subsidy to the Los Angeles Kings to play National Hockey League preparatory games in Quebec .

And despite an anticipated deficit which went from 4 billion to 11 billion, lamented Mr. Tanguay, the CAQ has forgotten SMEs and is not encouraging businesses to be more productive. However, this is how Quebec will be able to “work on the income column to pay for public services”. Another major oversight in Eric Girard’s budget: “there is no plan to stimulate housing construction in Quebec.”

Solidarity Quebec

Climate debt before financial debt

For Québec solidaire, the real debt left by the Girard budget will not be financial.

“We are in the process of ceding a climate debt which risks becoming unpayable for my children’s generation,” denounced the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. We are in the process of handing over to the next generation a housing crisis where we are falling behind in terms of building houses, in terms of building housing. »

In the case of public transportation, the government has not provided an additional budget and is not planning any new projects, an “unacceptable” decision. QS said it agrees with the end of subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles, but the money, he argued, should be used to develop public transport.

In terms of housing, Québec solidaire deplores that François Legault is not doing more while a crisis is hitting the province hard and “a four and a half now costs $2,000 per month”.

He emphasizes that François Legault has often said that the housing problem lies in supply, and that it is therefore necessary to build more. However, according to forecasts from the Ministry of Finance, construction starts will stagnate in the coming years.

Quebec Party

Billions of bad choices

For PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the only thing that can explain Quebec’s historic deficit is the bad choices of the CAQ government and its inability to obtain the amounts it is asking from Ottawa.

“We distributed checks worth billions, we made tax cuts for everyone, even those who earn more than $100,000 per year, we went there with 4-year-old kindergarteners, seniors’ homes expensive at 1 million per room – some are still empty -, the Blue Spaces, the Blue Basket, the studies for the third link, for the tramway, for the REM de l’Est. All that in the trash because it will never happen,” he denounced.

In the House, Prime Minister François Legault accused Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon of wanting to raise taxes on Quebecers to reduce deficits, which the PQ leader denied. He now asks him to “return to his own promise of an end to the incorporation of doctors and a change in their method of remuneration, which would allow us to raise 800 million dollars each year”.

“I don’t think we have the means now to deprive ourselves of these amounts,” he said.