Face aux nouveaux sommets du prix de l’essence, François Legault ouvre la porte à accorder un nouveau chèque aux Québécois, deux mois à peine après avoir versé 500 $ à 6,4 millions de contribuables pour les aider à lutter contre l’augmentation du coût de la vie.
Publié à 15h02
Mis à jour à 15h47
De passage à Laval mardi, le premier ministre s’est dit opposé à la suggestion du Parti québécois de limiter à 1,60 $ le litre et que la différence du prix soit à la charge des producteurs pétroliers.
« Ce n’est pas sérieux. Le pétrole c’est un prix mondial [et] we cannot think that we, here in Quebec, would dictate the price to the oil companies. This means that if we want to cap at $1.60 [le litre] gasoline, gasoline should be subsidized,” he explained.
However, since the government’s objective is to limit the consumption of fossil fuels by citizens in order to fight against climate change, such a subsidy would be counterproductive, he argued.
“It’s better to give an amount to Quebecers and Quebecers will do what they want with that amount. If they prefer to take public transit, well, we will encourage them in that direction,” continued the leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec.
His cabinet then clarified that the payment of a new one-time check to taxpayers was indeed studied, although the amount of it would not be as high as the payment of $ 500 announced in the last budget last March.
Quebec then announced that it would pay $500 to all taxpayers with an income of $100,000 or less, after tax deductions, a measure that cost the public treasury $3.2 billion.
Developing the east-west axis
Alongside the mayor of Laval, Stéphane Boyer, François Legault also dangled the development of a new axis of public transport oriented from east to west for Île Jésus.
The leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec, however, did not advance on the most appropriate mode for this project that the city would like to see develop in the furrow of Saint-Martin Boulevard.
He said his Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel, should give more details in the coming weeks as to the direction everything will take. François Legault also said he was in favor of extending the orange league to Laval.
But if “traditionally” public transport in Laval has developed rather on the north-south axis, to “go to Montreal and come back”, “we are no longer here today”, insisted the mayor of Laval , Stéphane Boyer.
During its mandate, the Legault government had asked the Caisse to study the idea of extending the REM to Laval. We were considering a section in the axis of Highway 15 towards Carrefour Laval.
However, the Caisse would have shown little interest in this project, which now leads the government to provide that its revised and corrected Eastern REM is heading towards Laval.
The Prime Minister was in Laval on Tuesday to meet Mayor Stéphane Boyer. Accompanied by his only Laval deputy, Christopher Skeete, he went in the morning to an establishment specializing in cheesecake, the Cheesecake bar, in the Sainte-Rose district.