The President of the National Assembly François Paradis considers it reasonable to increase the budget of the institution by $24.3 million, which still had an accumulated surplus of nearly $19 million in December.
Cash outflows totaling 167.5 million are planned this year to finance infrastructure projects and compensation increases, explained to the To have to Mr. Paradise.
“That increase is so reasonable,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
Mr. Paradis rejected any comparison between the 17% increase in the National Assembly’s budget, planned for this year, and the 6% increase granted to the Quebec health care network in the government’s latest budget.
“The health budget in Quebec is almost half of the government’s overall budget. We are talking about tens of billions of dollars. We are in a different category, ”he pleaded.
Infrastructure
The increase in the budget, approved in February by all the parliamentary groups represented in the National Assembly, provides for an envelope of 17 million which will be used in particular for the work of real estate and technological infrastructures.
In this regard, Mr. Paradis confirmed that a project of 13.6 million will allow by 2025 an expansion of 700 square meters as well as the development of a waste management site. Parliamentary perimeter security will also be improved.
Work estimated at 1.4 million will also be undertaken in the institution’s library.
Over the next five years, the renovation of the Blue Room, where question period takes place, is also planned.
Initially estimated at 3.3 million, this modernization project is still being estimated. A redevelopment in the shape of a hemicycle or a horseshoe could be chosen by the deputies in order to accommodate more elected officials if the needs arise.
“We don’t want to do work that we’re going to start over in three or four years,” said Mr. Paradis. We want to do work that will last for five or six decades. You have to put the pedal to the bottom to be able not to miss the boat. »
During the work, elected officials will sit in the Red Room, the former Legislative Council room, where $250,000 has been invested to date to receive them.
Another part of the increase planned for the next few months will be used to improve the salaries of the constituency office employees of the 125 deputies, explained the president.
Each office will be able to count on an additional sum of $50,000 to help with recruitment.
“We have put in place new ways to recruit,” said Mr. Paradis. The needs were dire. »
The $24.3 million increase for this year also includes an indexation of $7 million granted to the entire government administration by the Treasury Board.
Own-source revenue and surplus
Mr. Paradis was unable to specify whether an own-source revenue account, available to the institution and which is the equivalent of a woolen sock in which its budget surpluses accumulate, will be used to cover the difference between the expenditure budget planned for this year, ie 167.5 million, and that of the disbursements announced, which amounts to 176.8 million.
In recent years, the National Assembly has succeeded in accumulating budget surpluses which have financed its construction work, in particular an underground pavilion at a cost of 60 million.
Part of the amounts paid into this account came from staff hiring budgets that had not been used.
For 2021-2022, the National Assembly forecast expenditures for a workforce of 756 full-time positions.
On Tuesday, Mr. Paradis could not specify whether all the sums provided for the remuneration of these positions had been used.
“There is nothing that allowed a post to be used to recover amounts, that’s not how it’s managed,” assured the president.
In 2020-2021, an amount of $2.4 million in unused remuneration was nevertheless transferred to the own-source revenue account.
Next year, the institution plans to hire 822 people.
“All required employees are real positions,” said Mr. Paradis.
The accumulated surplus in the own-source revenue account was 19 million as of December 31, 2021. The amount at the end of the fiscal year, as of March 31, 2022, was not available on Tuesday. As of March 31, 2021, the account balance was 21 million.
In addition, Mr. Paradis, elected under the banner of the Coalition avenir Québec since 2014, said he has not yet decided whether he will be a candidate in the election next October.
“It continues, this reflection, he said. My goal is to do the job well with very busy weeks to move forward. Soon, I will be able to finalize my reflection. »