The Legault government has lost control of its spending and should take inspiration for its next budget from the liberal government of Philippe Couillard in power from 2014 to 2018, believes Éric Duhaime.
The Conservative leader defended the Couillard government in Quebec on Thursday, often accused of having imposed budgetary austerity. In fact, Mr. Couillard has only slowed the growth of spending, according to Mr. Duhaime.
“When the Liberals came to power, they cleaned up public finances, and since the Coalition Avenir Québec was here, it’s been a mess,” he said at a press briefing. “How is it that in Quebec we have lost so much control over our spending? »
Mr. Duhaime cites the Association of Quebec Economists, which says it has observed growth in portfolio spending in Quebec of 42.5% in the last five years.
The fact that Prime Minister François Legault recognizes that the next budget will be “largely in deficit” is also “very worrying”, according to him. “You know as I do that interest rates are not going to decrease,” he said. The 11 billion [de dollars] that we pay in interest is going to explode. »
To clean up public finances, Mr. Duhaime proposes, among other things, reducing government subsidies for businesses and for the purchase of electric vehicles. He also recommends revising programs and reducing the size of the state through attrition.
On Thursday, the Montreal Economic Institute reported that the number of full-time equivalent employees in the public service increased by 5,223 since 2018.
Mr. Duhaime defended himself at a press briefing from wanting to cut services to citizens. “People think that as soon as we reduce spending, we will reduce services. In fact, in Quebec, there has been significant growth in spending and the quality of services has declined,” he argued.
The PQ wants to recover money from Ottawa
For its part, the Parti Québécois of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon asks the CAQ to demonstrate transparency and to quantify in their next budget the cost of “successive refusals from Ottawa”.
He points out in a press release that the government has requested $1 billion from the federal government to accommodate asylum seekers, but has so far only obtained $100 million.
Furthermore, Quebec only received a sixth of what it asked for in health care. Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon also recalls that the Quebec government is still waiting for a right of withdrawal with full compensation of $3 billion for the dental program.
“That explains a good part of the large deficit announced,” he declared. By kneeling in front of Ottawa, the result will always be the same and we must draw political conclusions. »
The PLQ and QS emphasize construction
The Legault government must take advantage of its next budget to revive residential construction, say the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) and Québec solidaire (QS).
Both parties announced their budgetary expectations on Wednesday, emphasizing the importance of building more homes in Quebec.
The PLQ proposes to remove the QST on construction materials and to offer financial assistance to municipalities that achieve certain targets, for example, for the issuance of building permits.
For its part, QS is asking the government to provide $470 million to increase the number of construction starts by improving the QST reimbursement on new construction.
The Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, will table the 2024-2025 budget next Tuesday.