(Quebec) The oil companies reap profits “on the verge of fraud”, maintains the Parti Québécois (PQ), which is coming back to the charge with its idea of taxing excess profits.
In an interview on Wednesday, on the eve of the CAQ government’s economic update, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon argued that the situation had worsened in recent months.
For example, retail profit margins on the North Shore went from 14 to 27 cents per litre, despite a drop in the price of a barrel, he illustrated.
Compared to their average of the last 52 weeks, retail margins were, last Friday, higher by 110% in Sherbrooke, 67% in Shawinigan, 62% in Saint-Hyacinthe and 42% in Quebec.
The PQ leader declared that an economic statement was an opportunity for the opposition parties to propose the most comprehensive solutions “to a problem of inflation that hurts”.
“There is a problem of competition and pricing. It is high time to take an interest in the causes of the problem and to seek sums where there have been profits bordering on fraud, ”he said.
According to him, some countries in the world already tax profits that they consider excessive, or intend to do so: one need only think of the United Kingdom and Germany, he for follow-up.
He also points out that the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, now encourages taxing the superprofits of the oil companies.
If Quebec taxed these excess profits at 25%, it would recover 1 billion “which would allow us to support families in need, in particular”, calculates the PQ leader.
But the “real solution”, according to him, is to have competition laws that have “bite”, whether for groceries, oil or telecommunications.
“We want a Quebec consumer protection office dedicated solely to unfair and anti-competitive practices. »
Finally, it will be necessary to double the tax credit for solidarity, according to the PQ. “By giving checks to everyone, we are not sending the aid money where there is a need,” maintains Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
“Just printing checks doesn’t fix the problem for 2023. There’s no sign that groceries are going to be more affordable and no signs that at the pumps it’s going to be more livable this winter, so it takes solutions . »
On Wednesday, the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, defended the mass mailing of checks of $400 to $600 as an anti-inflation measure.
“We decided to target as many people as possible to be sure not to escape people who need it,” she said. She hinted that more measures could be announced during Thursday’s economic update.