Rather than tax cuts, the Parti Québécois is proposing a check of up to $1,200 for people in need and the middle class, in addition to doubling the solidarity credit.
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This “purchasing power allowance” would be $1,200 for people earning less than $50,000 and $750 for those earning between $50,0000 and $80,000.
As for the solidarity tax credit, it is aimed at low-income households. It is currently around $1,000 per year for a single person earning less than $37,000 and varies according to different parameters (depending on accommodation, whether the person is in a couple or has children, etc.). This credit would thus increase to approximately $2,000.
Not recurring
These measures are not recurrent and aim to restore the “overpayment” of 6.5 billion by the government due to inflation.
The purchasing power allowance would be financed from this “surplus” and would not be recurrent, while the solidarity credit would cost the State around 900 million and no deadline has been set.
“Many families are struggling to make ends meet,” said chef Paul St-Pierre Plamondon during a press briefing which took place, not without chance, in the parking lot of a MAXI in the east of Montreal
He cites as an example the pound of butter at $8 and the pot of vanilla Greek yogurt, his favorite, he says, is at $7.79. “It’s made that we buy it more,” he said.
He prefers this more targeted and ad hoc approach and criticizes parties that promise tax or tax cuts and calls these measures “irresponsible” and “counterproductive”. In his eyes, these are “election gifts” which benefit the rich as much as the people in need.
“Lowering taxes is a monumental mistake for public services,” he insisted. It benefits someone who makes $ 300,000, it benefits someone who makes 1 million and we at the Parti Québécois do not understand.
He criticized the check for $500
Last March, however, the Legault government gave $ 500 to all Quebecers and the leader of the PQ was critical. “We gave $500 to families who are not in need, reacted Mr. Plamondon. There is nothing structuring, there is no long-term vision, all that is there are communications to everyone saying: $ 500, that’s fun, that’s it.
The PQ approach would still allow a couple making $80,000 each, so a family income of $1,600, to receive $1,500. Mr. Plamondon specifies that he will be more generous with those who make $50,000 and “give a chance” to those who make a little more. “It’s much better than doing what the other parties have done, which is to give gifts or help people who do [jusqu’à] $1 million a year,” he defends himself.
This aid is not more structuring, he acknowledges, but it is not “destructuring” for all that. It aims above all to give back the “overpayment” that the State has “monopolized” thanks to inflation. “Where does this money come from? From the pocket of Quebecers […] We cannot ignore the situation of Quebec families, we must help them.”