The Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) on Wednesday presented a financial framework that has achieved the feat of massively reducing government revenue through tax cuts and increasing spending while generating a surplus for the year financial 2024-2025.
The leader of the party, Éric Duhaime, and his predecessor, Adrien Pouliot, tabled a document of nearly 50 pages detailing the intentions of a possible Conservative government and their impact on public finances.
This financial framework provides not only for a return to a balanced budget, but also for a surplus of $934 million in year three, a surplus that would reach $3.1 billion in 2025-2026 and finally $6 billion in 2026-2027 .
This financial framework spread over 2022 to 2027 provides that the increase in the basic personal amount and the promised tax cuts will result in a shortfall of nearly $5.6 billion in the first year and approximately $30 billion in after five years. When you add the other tax relief measures promised by the Conservatives, the shortfall totals just over $35 billion by 2027.
Spending reduction of 32 billion
At the opposite end of the spectrum, on the expenditure side, the PCQ foresees an overall increase in expenditure of 3.5% per year, but cuts in several budget items, the most significant of these cuts being the gradual elimination of business subsidies. , which will result in a gain of $13 billion.
Another line of spending cuts is in its intention to pass spending cap legislation that would ensure that no new programs could incur new spending, but would have to be funded with an equivalent saving elsewhere in the budget. , which would result in savings of $6.7 billion.
The Conservatives are betting that the proposal to integrate the private health sector will result in savings of $4.5 billion over five years and other savings would be achieved, in particular by eliminating subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles and by reducing the Department of Transportation’s budget totaling $3.2 billion.
Ultimately, spending cuts would reach $32 billion after five years. In addition, conservative projections maintain that the debt, which represents 42% of gross domestic product, would only represent 34.3% at the end of the five-year fiscal year.