(Quebec) The interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), Marc Tanguay, ends the parliamentary session by promising to make Quebecers “dream” about their future in Canada, by beginning, among other things, a reflection on a “council of the federation 2.0”, then reiterating that the Liberals advocate a return to “budgetary rigor”, as in the era of Philippe Couillard and as praised by Jean Charest.
For his last press briefing in parliament on Friday before the summer break, Mr. Tanguay said that a future Liberal government, which undertakes to table a plan to return to budgetary balance, would apply the rule of rigor “in each program [et] in all ministries.
“It was Jean Charest who said it: if you do not control your public finances, nothing is possible,” he said.
“We must put an end to the waste of François Legault and we must work on the income column,” added Mr. Tanguay, according to whom “ultimately, the government of Philippe Couillard was overall a very good government.”
In his first two years in office, in 2014 and 2015, Mr. Couillard put the brakes on state spending below the normal growth in program spending. Several demonstrations broke out in Quebec, while opponents of the Liberals, unions and different groups in society described the approach as austerity.
The “budgetary rigor” of a future Liberal government would not give way, this time, to parametric cuts, said Mr. Tanguay. Without specifying how in detail, the Liberal leader said that his party would work to increase the revenues generated by the Quebec state while putting an end to the “waste” of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) to balance the budget.
Marc Tanguay added that François Legault is, according to him, a “tired” man who accumulates failures.
“He is tired and faced with his repeated failures, at a given moment, he reaches the end of his logic of trying to shovel responsibility onto everyone. At some point, he doesn’t have anyone to throw the ball to,” he said.
A liberal government would set itself the objective of “making Quebecers dream” by proposing a new political tone based on dialogue, rather than pointing out culprits, notably immigration, in the face of Quebec’s issues.