Across Quebec, hundreds of volunteers have collected in recent weeks, as they do every year, food and funds that are donated to various food banks to meet growing needs. While Quebec has just spent $3.5 billion sending out one-time checks that will benefit households earning more than $200,000 a year and it is preparing to forgo $7.4 billion in four years with tax cuts, hundreds of thousands of people have to rely on food aid every month to survive.
The pandemic, the rising cost of living and the housing crisis have recently illustrated once again the weaknesses of the Quebec social safety net, which fails to adequately protect the most vulnerable. The food drive cannot make up for the inadequacy of social policies, particularly in the fight against poverty.
The recent promises of tax cuts completely obscure the need to adequately fund the social safety net. Surprisingly, they are being done as if the COVID-19 pandemic had not exposed the immense gaps in public services and social programs.
Whether it’s the carnage in CHSLDs, load shedding in hospitals, ventilation in public schools, the housing and homelessness crisis, difficulties in accessing direct services to the population public administration or the chronic underfunding of the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, to name just that, the failure of the neoliberal model imposed on Quebec since the beginning of the 1980s is nevertheless obvious .
It is more necessary than ever to engage in real reflection in Quebec on a truly progressive tax system to adequately and sustainably fund the development of social programs and public services. This debate is also essential in order to deal with the climate emergency which, as we know, will first affect the most vulnerable. In this context, it seems to us not only irresponsible to promise tax cuts that would benefit the richest in our society (in addition to depriving us of the resources we need), but absolutely urgent to put in place a truly progressive tax system. .
For more than ten years, the Coalition main rouge has supported the need to better fund public services and social programs in order to meet the needs of all citizens, particularly the most disadvantaged, by fighting for reduce social inequalities.
Proposals from the Main Rouge Coalition1 would raise nearly $14 billion more annually to improve public services and social programs, reduce socio-economic inequalities, particularly those between men and women, and address the climate challenge. These 15 measures would notably make it possible to improve tax progressivity and restore a balance between personal and corporate taxation. For example, according to calculations validated by economists, a tax on the wealth of the richest 1% would collect more than 4 billion dollars.
Moreover, the establishment of nine tax brackets (rather than the current four) would make it possible to collect an additional $2.5 billion while reducing taxes by a quarter of taxpayers, that is to say the less fortunate.
While we know that the richest have taken full advantage of the pandemic and inflation to enrich themselves even more, it seems fair to ask them to contribute more to the reduction of social inequalities through a progressive taxation. We even dare to believe that many would agree, they are so quick to donate to various charities to look good and accumulate tax reductions.
In this time of food drives, we invite the population to demand that the government do more to fight against social inequalities and implement fundamental human rights such as housing, clothing, food and a decent income.
* Co-signatories: Benoît Lacoursière, Secretary General and Treasurer, National Federation of Teachers of Quebec (FNEEQ-CSN); Mélanie Hubert, President, Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE); Réjean Leclerc, President, Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN); Émilie Charbonneau, Second Vice-President, Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS); Karine Drolet, President, Network of Regional Tables of Quebec Women’s Groups; Christian Daigle, General President of the Public and Parapublic Service Union of Quebec (SFPQ); Serge Petitclerc, spokesperson, Collective for a Quebec without poverty; Tristan Ouimet-Savard, head of mobilization, Quebec Network of Autonomous Community Action (RQ-ACA); Dominique Daigneault, President, Central Council of Metropolitan Montreal – CSN; Audrey Hébert, Head of Mobilization, Common Front of People on Social Assistance of Quebec (FCPASQ); Claude Vaillancourt, President, ATTAC-Quebec; André Castonguay, Executive Director, Quebec Network of Non-Profit Housing Organizations (RQOH); Gaëlle Fedida, President of the Table of Provincial Groups of Community and Voluntary Organizations; Sylvie Lévesque, Executive Director, Federation of Associations of Single-Parent and Blended Families of Quebec; Marie-Andrée Painchaud, Coordinator, Intersectorial Grouping of Community Organizations of Montreal (RIOCM); Julie Corbeil, Coordinator, Regional Table of Voluntary Organizations for Popular Education (TROVEP) in Montreal; Pascal Florant, coordinator of Solidarité populaire Estrie