Quebec is projecting a higher than expected surplus of $2.2 billion in the current fiscal year.
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Information available this summer led the government to call for a surplus of $1.8 billion in the year ending next March 31.
“We are optimistic because we now have been able to regain our room to manouevre,” said the finance minister.
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Finance Minister Carlos Leitao‘s economic update Tuesday states the province will also abolish a health tax in 2017, two years earlier than scheduled.
He said his government will immediately invest the equivalent of an additional $410 million per year in the health and education sectors, including $100 million this year for home care. They will also invest $400 million over the next three years in regional economic development.
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Leitao added the Liberals also plan to increase the infrastructure fund by $400 million in the 2017-18 fiscal year, which begins next April 1.
“We slowed the pace of program spending… to allow us now to maintain public spending at the level that is a little more generous, if you want to use that word – and sustainable,” Leitao explained.
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The minister said the government will add roughly $2 billion this year to a fund dedicated to paying down the debt.
The Parti Quebecois opposition is skeptical of the government’s whole economic strategy. They say the surplus was only possible because of unfair austerity measures in health and social services.
“That was clearly a plan, so that they could later on – and now we’re entering the phase, where they are distributing electoral candies,” said Nicolas Marceau, PQ finance critic.
For weeks, the CAQ opposition has been pushing the government to consider tax cuts they say are necessary to lessen the economic burden on families and stimulate the economy.
“Over the last two and a half years, (the Liberal government) increased taxes and tariffs by an average of $1300 for families and today the announcement is they will reimburse because of the health tax $140,” said CAQ leader, Francois Legault.
“We will not reduce taxes to the detriment of public services,” Leitao said in response.
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