(Montreal) The Liberal leader, Dominique Anglade, proposed Sunday to lift the QST on the electricity bill “up to $4,000”, on a temporary basis.
Posted at 11:22
Updated at 12:11 p.m.
“The cost of living situation is extremely difficult for everyone,” she explained at a press conference in Montreal, citing economic uncertainty, high inflation and the Ukrainian conflict. “It’s not a luxury in Quebec to have heat and electricity. »
Criticizing the decision of the CAQ government of François Legault, which in 2019 had Hydro-Québec’s rates indexed to inflation, she promised “to put a freeze” on them. These rates had been frozen in 2020, but must be indexed from 2021 to 2024. “It corrects a historic error made by the CAQ,” she said.
The next update, at 1er April, will raise prices by 2.6%, she recalled, adding that several experts predict an increase “above 5%” in 2023.
The inflation rate according to the consumer price index was 5.1% in January, according to the Bank of Canada. By comparison, it was 2.2% when the law was passed.
The Leader of the Official Opposition also wants to abolish once and for all the provincial tax on certain basic necessities, “like soap, like shampoo, like toothbrushes, like the drugs you buy without a prescription” or incontinence products.
In all, she estimates that these measures would cost 1.5 billion to the coffers of the State, but the additional revenues garnered during the last year are, according to her, quite sufficient to cover these new expenses.
Mme Anglade called on the Prime Minister to “take the proposal we are making today and apply it to the budget”, scheduled for March 22, arguing that these are “measures that are easy to apply today and which have a direct impact on all Quebec families.
The office of the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, replied in writing that “since we came to power, more than $2.7 billion have been given to Quebecers”.
He refrained from giving more details on the content of the budget, as it has not yet been tabled, but argued that it “will be an opportunity to present measures to deal with the increase in Cost of life “.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Facebook and The Canadian Press News Fellowships.