(Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur) Dominique Anglade accuses his united adversary Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of attacking farmers with his promise to introduce a tax on net assets of more than one million dollars.
Posted at 10:05 a.m.
The Liberal leader went Wednesday morning to the farm of her candidate in Huntingdon, the former federal Liberal MP Jean-Claude Poissant, to present her promises in terms of agriculture. She will meet a little later with representatives of the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA), as will Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and François Legault (it will be Thursday for the other chefs).
During his press conference, Dominique Anglade replied that Québec solidaire is attacking farmers with its “tax on large fortunes” unveiled on Tuesday.
“If I look here, the combine behind me, it’s worth a million dollars. When we talk about agricultural succession, the need to have young people who want to get involved in agriculture, you cannot tell me that it is these young people who are going to be taxed. This is one example among millions of examples that you will find. So he is attacking the next generation of farmers, ”she argued.
According to her, “there are plenty of people who have assets of a million. One only has to think of the farmers who have goods that are worth that. But in everyday life, it is far from being an easy life that is led ”.
For the candidate Jean-Claude Poissant, dairy and cereal producer, it is necessary “to look at the whole of an agricultural enterprise. There have been sacrifices from generation to generation. Before saying that a person is rich, you have to think about the whole past of a company. And when a farmer has trouble getting there and we’re going to tax him more because he needs these things [des équipements et machineries] to do our job, we have a problem”.
Dominique Anglade added that QS is on the wrong track by wanting to impose “people who have worked all their lives to give something to their children”. “When parents have worked all their lives and decide to transfer the assets, even a house, to their children, no, I don’t think they should be taxed,” she said.
The Liberal leader promises to reform the Agricultural Land Protection Act to tighten the rules to curb urban sprawl encroaching on good land. It wants to regulate the acquisition of agricultural land by people who do not intend to use it for farming. It undertakes to carry out a “complete review” of the programs of the Financière agricole in order to better adapt them to the impacts of climate change. It offers a tax incentive when selling land to the next generation to help young producers.
The CAQ snatched the riding of Huntingdon from the PLQ in the 2018 elections. Outgoing MP Claire IsaBelle is not standing. Carole Mallette, former president of Usinages Mallette and an engineer by training, wears the colors of the CAQ this time around.