(Quebec) Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard remained unsatisfied with the federal budget tabled Tuesday, which he considers to be spendthrift, but too ungenerous for Quebec on several levels.
In a press scrum Wednesday morning, the day after the presentation of the budget by his federal counterpart Chrystia Freeland, Mr. Girard recognized certain positive points for Quebec, particularly on investments in artificial intelligence.
However, he quickly moved on to criticism: according to him, it is a spending budget, which is a “mistake” in the current context, where we hope for a reduction in interest rates.
And despite these numerous expenses, he says, Quebec does not get enough, particularly for public transport and asylum seekers.
On the essential issue of housing, according to him, the sums are not large enough “to make a difference”.
In tabling its $535 billion budget on Tuesday, the Trudeau government argued that it aims to restore economic fairness for millennial and generation Z Canadians. The budget commits $11.5 billion in new spending this year and 53 billion over the next five years.
Ottawa will pay for part of the new spending thanks to better-than-expected economic growth, but also with targeted changes to the capital gains tax that are expected to raise more than $19 billion over the next five years. Ottawa announced that beyond the threshold of $250,000, two-thirds of capital gains will be taxed, rather than half.
On this last point, Mr. Girard said that the government had to verify whether Quebec will comply with this measure.
“We want to check the calculations,” he explained.
“Is there an economic opportunity for us, is it possible that being a jurisdiction with a lower capital gain would bring, attract business investment? You have to analyze this carefully. »