The marked increase in the cost of living has provoked strong mobilizations around the world, but not in Quebec.
Are Quebecers satisfied with the anti-inflation shield made by the CAQ government at a cost of $13.2 billion over five years: one-time assistance of up to $600, strengthening support for seniors, curbing the rise in government rates? Yes, according to the latest probe from the Angus Reid Institute.
Premier François Legault enjoys an approval rating of 57%, which puts him first in the ranking of the most popular provincial heads of government, published by the NPO earlier this week. It will be a “Merry Christmas for Legault”, argued the Angus Reid Institute.
The director of the Center for the History of Social Regulations (CHRS), Martin Petitclerc, finds it “very surprising” that galloping inflation “is not the cause of greater protests” in the country. He offers some explanations.
In his view, the aid benefits offered by Ottawa and Quebec over the past two years have “temporarily” reduced the impact of the increase in the cost of living on the daily lives of Canadians and Quebecers.
On the other hand, the professor in the Department of History at UQAM recalls that 40% of Quebec employees are unionized. As a result, he is convinced that the “issue” of inflation “will be negotiated for a good part in collective bargaining, which announces many labor disputes” in Quebec. For the time being, “the labor shortage gives a certain balance of power to employees” in the private sector — unionized or not — “allows a number of people to negotiate wage increases and overall improvements in their working conditions “. “Wage increases will be about 4% this year for non-union jobs. However, if there is a recession starting next year, as many are expecting, employers will try to take advantage of the situation to reverse this trend,” indicated Mr. Petitclerc.
Moreover, the theme of inflation “was mainly taken up by the conservative populist right at both the federal and provincial levels, which allowed the Liberal federal government and the CAQ provincial government to present themselves as practicing an economic policy ‘of center “apparently consensual”, argues the director of CHRS. By positioning themselves in this way, the Trudeau and Legault governments can also “distinguish themselves from progressive parties, such as the New Democratic Party and Québec solidaire, which militate for an economic policy that is much more favorable to low wage earners and much more critical of large companies that they also contribute to inflation through their ability to control prices,” Mr. Petitclerc notes in passing.
Inflation is at the heart of important historical moments, notably at the end of the First World War which led to what is called the “workers’ revolt” across Canada and Quebec. The “expensive life” was at the heart of the workers’ mobilization from 1916 in a context of a war economy, of rationing of the population, but of enormous profits for the capitalists. The federal government tried to respond temporarily by banning the strike, which contributed to the discontent… In Quebec, it would take a few decades before the number of days lost due to the strike exceeded the level reached in 1919. The other great period is that of the 1970s.
With the approach of the holiday season, Mr. Legault launched “a call for solidarity from all Quebecers”. “We are living in difficult times right now. It’s about going to the grocery store, it’s about seeing the interest rates… It’s hard on everyone,” he said during the “holiday greetings” from the heads of the parliamentary groups in the hall of the National Assembly on Friday.
Before the magic of the holidays took hold of the Salon bleu, Québec solidaire spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois had accused the Prime Minister of “not helping” nor the “cashier in a supermarket who works at minimum wage”, neither the “mom of a five-year-old child who is afraid of losing her affordable rent in Montreal”, nor the “student who just eats tin cans because even the Opus card is made too expensive” […] “The poverty wages, the overpriced rents, the bills that explode without common sense, there, the Prime Minister, he has power over that. It is not a fatality. He can change that, ”he said, after two weeks of parliamentary work during which he exposed the woes of expensive living.
“QS thinks they have a monopoly on compassion,” retorted Mr. Legault. The CAQ leader, however, was careful not to give a nickname like “Vincent de Paul” – the saint who “worked throughout his life to relieve material and moral misery”, according to Wikipedia – to Mr. Nadeau-Dubois , as he had done with the member for Sherbrooke, Christine Labrie (“Mother Teresa”), last March.