(Québec) Le pire de l’inflation est passé, selon le ministre des Finances, Eric Girard, qui a annoncé mercredi qu’il limitera à 3 % la hausse des tarifs pour le permis de conduire, les droits d’immatriculation et la contribution en hébergement pour les CHSLD avec un règlement.
« Ce qu’on voit, c’est des bonnes nouvelles. […] The peak of inflation is behind us. And what we see, what we can anticipate, is that inflation will continue to decline, and we see this in particular in the price of goods, “launched the Minister of Finance on Wednesday during a briefing.
Mr. Girard was reacting to new data on inflation, which remained stable at 6.9% in October. Beyond this figure, you have to go into the “details”, he explained.
“Inflation, there is a goods component, then there is a services component. And the goods component, in English core goods, it’s about 60%. We can see that it is slowing down enormously,” noted Mr. Girard, who says the consensus among economists is that inflation will continue to decline in 2023.
He is not worried about the risk of a recession either, and says that the main thing to expect is an economic slowdown. “What we’re seeing is a pronounced economic downturn that started at the end of 2022, and will continue into 2023. And I think that’s what’s more important, not whether growth is going to be +0.2% or -0.2% in a given quarter,” he added.
Fight against inflation
Mr. Girard also announced a first step in his plan to fight inflation. “We will limit to 3% for the period from January 1, 2023 to December 31. Normally, the indexation would have been around 6.4%. This is the first step in our promise to limit the rise in tariffs to 3%, ”said Finance Minister Eric Girard on Wednesday during a press briefing at the National Assembly.
This regulation is the prelude to the filing of a bill, at the start of the parliamentary term, which will limit to a maximum of 3% the increase in the prices of all State services. “There will be a second stage where we will cover all the rates that apply to taxpayers for the entire mandate, while the settlement, today, is really only the rates that were going to be set on 1er January and for the first year,” said Mr. Girard.
The regulation only covers driver’s licenses, registration fees and the rates for individual and semi-private rooms in CHSLDs. The cost of this measure – the difference between the 3% indexation and actual inflation – for the Quebec government is $331 million.
“And there will be another subsequent step that will concern Hydro rates,” also added Mr. Girard. This bill will have to correct a previous law adopted under the gag order by the Legault government and which linked the Hydro-Québec bill to inflation.