Between a drop in Hydro-Québec’s dividend, an economic slowdown, and recent negotiations with public sector unions, Finance Minister Eric Girard says the province is left with little wiggle room in its upcoming budget.
However, the provincial government says there will be no austerity measures or cuts to public services, with health care and education said to be its top two priorities.
This means there is a possibility Girard will delay the province’s return to a balanced budget beyond 2028 when he tables the province’s budget in Quebec City March 12.
Quebec Liberal Party Finance Critic Frédéric Beauchemin feels it’s the CAQ government’s poor planning that left the province in the red.
“They’re hurting the next generation by basically loading up on a credit card again and delaying the moment where we will have balanced finances,” he said. “It’s terrible.”
Beauchemin points to the 500-hundred-dollar cost-of-living payments the province dolled out in 2022, as well as the recent decision to pay for a new roof on the Olympic stadium, were among the “bad decisions” that led the government here.
Meanwhile, Québec solidaire says the growing deficit isn’t its biggest concern.
Despite the Premier saying austerity measures are out of the question, Québec solidaire Finance Critic Haroun Bouazzi isn’t entirely convinced the province won’t see cuts to its public services.
Bouazzi is calling on the government to stop lowering taxes for higher-income Quebecers.
“We really think that there is a part of the society that should contribute more to our common richness so that we can actually have these services,” Bouazzi explained.
For its part, the Parti-Québécois believes the province’s financial problems are due in large part to the CAQ government’s repeated failure to get funding from the federal government.
And PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says Quebec’s health-care and education systems continue to suffer as a result.
“We shouldn’t have to beg and negotiate for every aspect of the management of the state. … Negotiating with a government in Ottawa that took our own money and then wants a negotiation every time we want it back for essential missions,” said St-Pierre Plamondon. “Shouldn’t we take the 80 billion we’re sending to Ottawa a year and manage it by ourselves?”
St-Pierre Plamondon points to the province’s negotiations over health-care funding last year, in which Quebec was offered just $1 billion a year in new funding — $5 billion less than it had requested.
Ottawa has also threatened to withhold part of that funding if Quebec doesn’t sign the bilateral agreement by March 31.
St-Pierre Plamondon says separation would be the ultimate solution as it would allow the province to control its own funds. In the meantime, he’s calling on the government to display the funds it failed to receive from Ottawa in this upcoming budget, in a show of transparency.
All opposition parties would also like to see housing prioritized in the next budget and they aren’t alone.
The Montreal Metropolitan Community Council is asking for 3-thousand more social housing units over the next 10 years, as well as well as 1 billion dollars in funding to renovate low-income housing.
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