After promising tax cuts the day before, Quebec politicians took advantage of Day 3 of the election campaign to speak directly to golden age voters, each in their own way.
The day began in Beauce, where the head of the Coalition avenir Québec, François Legault, pledged to increase the allowance offered to people aged 70 and over with an income of less than $24,195. In a second CAQ term, it would go from $411 to $2,000.
Fernande Donaldson was smiling with all her teeth when Mr. Legault entered the Le Dauphin restaurant-bar in Sherbrooke on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s the first one that spoils us a bit! she said, after putting on her blue “optimist” t-shirt and lowering her mask under her chin.
The octogenarian applauded François Legault’s decision to improve the financial assistance offered to seniors this year. “The amount will be modulated. We’re gonna donate $2000 [sous la forme d’un crédit d’impôt remboursable aux personnes dont] income is less than $24,195. Then from $24,195 to $64,195, […] the amount of $ 2,000 will gradually decrease, ”explained the chief caquist in front of the Manoir du quartier, in Saint-Georges, in the morning.
Fernande Donaldson was delighted. She advanced with a determined step towards the head of the CAQ, who had sat down at the Le Dauphin bar in the company of candidates, and kissed him under the indifferent gaze of the bodyguards deployed all around. “He was a real beak. He had a hand on my shoulder as well, ”she later told the To have to.
The octogenarian handed a sheaf of sheets to the To have to containing the correspondence she has had with the “Right Honorable Premier of Quebec” for almost a year. “I am an 84 year old woman. I live in my accommodation and I would like to stay there. I am in good financial shape [mais] I can’t make it anymore because of inflation,” M wrote by hand.me Donaldson in November 2021. “The amounts we have announced are only a first step,” replied Mr. Legault in February 2022. Mrme Donaldson resumed writing in April; Mr. Legault, the computer keyboard…
“Copier”
Since the start of this election campaign dotted with economic announcements, the CAQ has been polishing its “anti-inflation shield”. The increase in the allowance for the elderly is the third measure – out of four – of this plan supposed to protect Quebecers from the sword of Damocles which is inflation.
Not so fast, said Liberal leader Dominique Anglade on Tuesday. She also proposes to revise upwards the amounts offered to vulnerable seniors. A proposal similar in all respects to that of the CAQ opponent even appeared in the liberal program presented to the activists in June, she recalled in the morning.
“François Legault is out of ideas, she launched. I would tell you that François Legault is a copier. »
“You have to run out of arguments to say: ‘Oh, Mr. Legault is copying us.’ What this means, among other things, is that Mme Anglade agrees with the CAQ program. So I’m happy, ”retorted François Legault in a schoolyard in Sherbrooke.
Review the Generations Fund
Coming out of a pandemic which has considerably increased “the debt to our seniors”, we must seek additional funds for them, for his part declared the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, during a meeting. a press briefing in Montreal. The left-wing party once proposed redirecting all payments to the Generations Fund towards the fight against climate change; the discourse has changed.
” [Il y a une génération] who is approaching aging and who says to himself: I do not want to grow old in a CHSLD, I am afraid to go there, he observed on the sidelines of an announcement on the cost of living. We are going to use the Generations Fund to help, for real, all generations in Quebec. »
At the moment, it is expected that nearly 22 billion dollars will land in this debt reduction fund by 2027. QS intends to use them to fight against climate change and to improve the lot of older Quebecers.
“Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois tells us that he wants to put 22 billion from the Generations Fund in the environment, launched François Legault, who proposes instead to use part of the payments to finance tax cuts. We have a 63 billion plan: there is 56 billion for public transit and 7 billion in the Plan for a green economy. That’s 63 billion! Is Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois telling us that he is going to add 22 billion on top of that? Where will he get the money for school infrastructure, hospitals? »
The leader of the CAQ called for a “pragmatic” vote on Tuesday afternoon, in the riding of Sherbrooke, represented in the National Assembly by the solidarity Christine Labrie – whom he has already nicknamed “Mother Teresa”. The sector could be the scene of an infighting in the coming weeks. According to the Qc125 survey aggregation site, QS and the CAQ are neck and neck.
” [La candidate caquiste] Caroline St-Hilaire is a pragmatic person. This is not a person who is ideological, okay? argued François Legault on Tuesday. When I hear Québec solidaire say, like the Conservative Party, that they should give money to parents who stay at home to look after their children, the world is turned upside down. But, sometimes, that’s what ideology does. »
With Alexandre Robillard