QUEBEC – The Parti Quebecois’ budget aims to control spending, put more effort into revenue generation and better manage infrastructure spending.
Although the government is being sharply criticized for its lack of imagination and funding of social services and programs, it has introduced a few spending initiatives.
Here’s a quick overview.
Health
The Parti Quebecois aims to give 750,000 Quebecers access to a family physician within two years and has also earmarked an additional $110,000 million to fund senior at-home care in 2013-2014.
Children and families
The government noted that 73% of Quebec women between the ages of 15-44 are working – a figure that is higher than Canada and Ontario and it credits its daycare program for this success.
To this end, the government plans to create an additional 28,000 $7-per-day daycare spots. It also plans to introduce a tax credit of 20% up to $500 for children’s physical and cultural activities.
Housing
The government plans to build 30,000 new affordable housing units.
Education
The education budget has been increased by 1.8% and higher education by 2%. As expected, the tuition fee increase has been removed from budget.
The Parti Quebecois are planning an education summit in February 2013 and plan to propose then the indexation of tuition fees.
Culture
The budget for culture has been increased by 2.1%, which now accounts for 1% of total government spending.
Investment
The Parti Quebecois believe that the “best place to invest in the coming years is Quebec” and to ensure that this continues they are introducing a “tax holiday for investments” for projects of $300 million or more.
This means that businesses will be exempted from corporate income tax and contributions to health services.
The PQ have also extended investment tax credits until 2017 and plan to create a Banque de developpement econonmique du Quebec.
With a budget of $500 million, plus $250 million for regions affected by closures, it will provide financial assistance to for-profits, cooperatives, social economy businesses and foreign companies.
A further $200 million has been earmarked for the development of clean energy and electric transportation.
The refundable tax credit for biopharmaceutical research salaries has been increased from 17.5% to 27.5% and a $125 million matching fund will be established for five years to foster research partnerships.
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