WATCH: After former Quebec premier Pauline Marois used $24,000 in public funds to pay an ex-Parti Québécois candidate to study Quebec City media, the Liberals are considering slashing departing premiers’ allowances. Caroline Plante has more.
QUEBEC CITY — The Couillard government could slash the $200,000 annual allowance given to former premiers after they depart.
A Journal de Québec report revealed Wednesday that Pauline Marois used some of those tax dollars to commission a study to review media coverage in Quebec City.
Marois gave Dominique Payette a $24,000 three-month contract to conduct the study. Payette is a former Parti Québécois candidate who blamed the party’s 2014 defeat on the media.
Both women failed to get elected in the Quebec City/Charlevoix area in the last provincial election.
READ MORE: Pauline Marois loses her seat in Charlevoix-Côte-de-Beaupré
Premiers in Quebec are typically given $200,000-a-year for three years to pay for an office and staff during their transition back to civic life.
“Former premiers had this allocation,” said PQ leader Pierre-Karl Péladeau.
“It’s to the discretion of those who receive it to use it as they like.”
Very few people were aware of the departing premiers’ generous allowance. Premier Philippe Couillard acknowledged he knew of it, but immediately asked that it be reduced or abolished altogether.
READ MORE: Premier says ‘no’ to MNA severance pay
“As soon as we came into office, I asked the Secretary General of the government, the top civil servant of Quebec, to independently review the policy in place,” Couillard told reporters.
“So that it’s compatible with the financial situation.”
Quebec is trimming in almost every department in an effort to return to a balanced budget.
READ MORE: Quebec expected to table first balanced budget since 2008
“We’re in favour of looking at ways to be more careful with those budgets,” said Treasury Board President Martin Coiteux.
Coalition Avenir Quebec leader François Legault said he finds the amount — and the way Marois spent it — revolting.
“There are limits to wasting money to help the PQ’s buddies,” Legault said.
“It’s not the job of a former premier to give such a contract. We’re looking for places to cut. It makes no sense. It’s unacceptable.”
A spokesperson for Marois said the former premier will publish the study, an overview of the regional media in the provincial capital, as soon as it has been completed.
Marois will be willing to discuss her findings, which, her spokesperson insisted, will be useful for the entire political class.
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