Quebec budget must help citizens cope with inflation: opposition parties

Article content

QUEBEC — With many Quebecers struggling to make ends meet, Quebec’s opposition parties have given Finance Minister Eric Girard a host of new ways to ease the woes of citizens as he prepares the March 22 Quebec budget.

Article content

A day after the Quebec Liberals suggested temporarily suspending the sales tax on electricity bills and dropping it altogether on such essential items as soap, shampoo and toothpaste to help people cope with soaring prices, Québec solidaire voiced their own wish list.

It includes a total freeze on hydro rates as well as doubling the social solidarity tax credit for six months for the three million lower-income Quebecers who receive it.

The idea is to help seniors and Quebecers who are less well off deal with the soaring cost of everything from gas to food to rent, QS finance critic Ruba Ghazal told reporters at a news conference.

“This budget must not be an electoral budget to help the Coalition Avenir Québec get more votes,” Ghazal said. “It must be a budget to help people.

Article content

“Everything costs more, but salaries, unfortunately, have not followed. Right now, people are faced with hard choices at the grocery store. They are cutting where they can cut, and most of the time it is in food.”

Ghazal’s party estimates that doubling Quebec’s social solidarity tax credit for a six-month period would put another $2,340 a year in the pockets of a low-income family with two children.

A person over 65 would get up to $2,042 more. QS would also give the same seniors an additional $500 in the form of a one-time check.

The party, however, is not in favor of cutting Quebec’s share of the gas tax that citizens pay at the pump. Ghazal said doing so would only be a “band-aid” solution to the real problem, which is that there are too many cars on the road.

She said Girard’s budget must be “the greenest in Quebec’s history.”

Quebec’s annual budget exercise is being especially closely followed this year. It is the CAQ government’s last budget before the Oct. 3 general election.

Over the weekend, Premier François Legault started advertising what goodies the budget could contain, while also insisting he does not want it to be seen as an exercise in vote-getting.

Taking to his Facebook page, Legault promised the government will come to the rescue of households feeling the pinch of inflation.

Article content

“Without revealing the measures included in the March 22 budget, I can tell you we are going to help you pay the increases in the costs of housing, groceries, gas and electricity,” Legault said.

Legault insisted the CAQ will not go overboard.

“It’s out of the question, in an electoral year, that we include a fireworks of new spending as other governments have done before us,” Legault wrote in a message to citizens. “The best way to keep your confidence is to respect your intelligence.”

Legault, however, dwelled at length on all the things the CAQ has done since taking power in the 2018 general election.

The sleeper issue emerging is hydro rates.

In 2019, the CAQ government adopted a bill indexing Hydro-Québec rate increases to the rate of inflation. While the rates were frozen in 2020, they are to be indexed from 2021 to 2024 as a result of the legislation.

Article content

But inflation is running way above what the government projected in the budget a year ago. It predicted a three per cent inflation rate for 2021-2022, when the real rate is now headed above four per cent.

That means Quebecers can expect big increases in hydro bills in the coming years. After the 2.6 per cent increase this April 1, the climb will continue and could hit five per cent or more by 2023.

At the same time, the price of gas has also soared in recent weeks leading to calls for the government to reduce the share of the tax it takes to give motorists a break.

Speaking last week at an electoral event in the South Shore riding of Marie-Victorin, Legault said he was no fan of a freeze on gas prices because he said the people who will benefit most are those who consume the most. The same goes for freezing hydro rates.

Legault said he favors a direct approach when it comes to helping citizens; that is, compensating taxpayers for price increases with checks.

[email protected]

twitter.com/philipauthier