To help Quebecers cope with galloping inflation, the Parti Québécois will soon table a bill to freeze the rates of all state-owned companies, an initiative that is supposed to save households hundreds of dollars according to its leader. .
• Read also: Wages should increase in Quebec
• Read also: Alberta withdraws provincial gas tax
• Read also: Should rents be frozen?
“The impoverishment of Quebecers is important, it affects several families and if the government remains idly by, it has other consequences, but we don’t have to wait for these consequences,” said Paul St-Pierre. Plamondon, in interview.
The proposed freeze, for a period of one year, would concern all state companies and would allow consumers to save several hundred dollars, estimates the PQ.
In the case of Hydro-Québec, for example, the increase in rates next year could amount to more than 5% since it is now modeled on inflation since the adoption of Bill 34 presented by the Minister of Energy, Jonatan Julien, in 2019.
Savings
Thus, the PQ calculates savings of $110 to $200 per household on energy costs, $20 to $50 for the Société des alcools du Québec and $10 to $30 for the Société des traversiers du Québec thanks to the proposed freeze. .
“We think it takes extraordinary solutions,” says Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
According to him, freezing electricity rates for one year then indexing them and reducing the amount of the school tax, two commitments made by the Coalition Avenir Québec during the last elections, are measures that are “completely ill-adapted” to the current situation.
Help the middle class
Passing through Longueuil on Tuesday, the Prime Minister, François Legault, dangled sums to help the middle class in the next budget which will be presented on March 22.
In the same breath, he ruled out the possibility of withdrawing the provincial gas tax, as Alberta has just done, or freezing electricity rates.
According to the CAQ leader, such measures would benefit more “those who consume more”, for which he prefers “to give an amount which is fixed for everyone”.
Already, his government had sent checks for $200 to $275 to low-income Quebecers after the presentation of a mini-budget last November by Finance Minister Eric Girard.
$3,000 less per household
But for Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, these measures are also insufficient.
The latter recalls that it will cost a family of four about $1,000 more to shop for groceries in 2022 than last year, according to the findings of a team of Canadian researchers published in the Annual Price Report. food 2022.
Taking this data into account, the PQ calculates an impoverishment of $3,000 this year, on average, for households.
Reference-www.journaldequebec.com