Haroun Bouazzi will monitor “superminister” Fitzgibbon

(Québec) The new face of the economy at Québec solidaire, Haroun Bouazzi, wants to fight to defend SMEs, monitor Pierre Fitzgibbon and his “superpowers” ​​and establish the economic credibility of the party. He does not hesitate to criticize the tax on the rich proposed by his party in the campaign: the next version will have to avoid penalizing young retirees, he underlined.

Charles Lecavalier
The Press

MP Haroun Bouazzi, who won the riding of Maurice-Richard over to the Liberal Party, acknowledges that Quebec solidaire’s (QS) wealthy tax proposal has created a “perception of tax injustice” that has hurt the party.

During the election campaign, QS was beaten by Prime Minister François Legault, who summed up his estate tax and capital tax proposals as the “orange tax”. But beyond the attacks, the proposal had weaknesses, in addition to having had shortcomings in terms of communications, acknowledged Mr. Bouazzi.

“We will have to change it, and make sure that the middle class does not end up participating in this contribution,” he said in an interview with The Press.

He does not deny the substance of the proposal: he quotes the economists Joseph E. Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty, and believes that it is a measure which makes it possible to “reduce inequalities and stimulate the economy”.

A “new version” of the tax within four years

During the election campaign, QS wanted to tax the assets – the value of the pension fund and the house, for example, from which the debts are subtracted – of a person that exceeded one million dollars. But this tax was perceived by part of the middle class as an “unfair” tax, he acknowledged.

The population between 55 and 70 years old was also “overrepresented” among the 5% of people affected by this tax. “It’s like a stage where you have a lot of savings for retirement, and you haven’t started spending those savings and you’ve finished paying for your house. There is this population which finds itself with little income, but with a capital”, underlined Mr. Bouazzi.

“Perception is important. I hear it and it is a proposal that will evolve,” he said. Mr. Bouazzi is already raising his hand to be part of the committee that will prepare a “new version” of the tax within four years.

Monitor the “superminister”

But beyond this assessment, Mr. Bouazzi wants to talk about his new role: to monitor the “superminister” Pierre Fitzgibbon, responsible for the Economy and Energy.

He is not against the idea of ​​merging the Ministries of Economy and Energy. “That energy is part of the economic issues to serve the ecological transition, we agree with that. But it has to be to serve an ecological transition, and not to serve outdated and hard-skinned fantasies that we have an infinite possibility of growth, and that the simple fact of saying that it is electricity renewable makes it possible to say that it is ecological”, said Mr. Bouazzi.

He will be “very vigilant about what Minister Fitzgibbon is going to do with his superpowers” ​​and asks for transparency from the energy transition committee created by François Legault.

In particular, he wants a “transparent and costed plan” and to know the analysis grid for the projects that will be studied.

QS will support industrial projects that will enable the ecological transition, for example battery factories and the electrification of polluting industrial processes, he said.

Mr. Bouazzi will also be on the lookout for “everything related to ethics and sound governance”. “The current minister, the superminister, is struggling to understand the elementary ground rules for sound governance of state institutions,” he said.

He also wants to be “a great defender of SMEs” in the face of “unfair competition from multinationals, large corporations”. “SMEs are grappling with serious problems: shortage of labor and funding, for example. Large corporations have complete departments that deal with tax optimization and foreign labor sponsorship. SMEs cannot do that,” he added.