In politics, there are different ways of dealing with a problem that we know we are incapable of solving. We can shoot the messenger, find a scapegoat or even outright deny reality. The only forbidden option is to admit one’s powerlessness.
Last year, when the Quebec Infrastructure Plan reported the alarming dilapidation of primary and secondary schools, Bernard Drainville challenged the methodology used, which was nevertheless that proposed by the Methodological and technical guide for inspecting school infrastructure developed by his own ministry.
He said he himself had visited several schools which had been given very poor grades and which had nevertheless seemed very acceptable to him. Prime Minister Legault even suggested that school service centers had deliberately darkened the picture to obtain more money.
This week, the Minister responsible for Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, in turn contested the methodology which led the Commissioner for Health and Well-being, Joanne Castonguay, to deplore the low amounts allocated to home care in Quebec by compared to the rest of Canada.
“It’s not a question of money. And at some point there is a limit with public finances,” said Mme Bélanger in an interview at Duty. The problem with home care would be the same one that was at the heart of the negotiations in the public sector: “The challenge is really to review the organization of work. »
It is fortunate that it is not a question of money, because the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, rightly warned that there was no more. Public service workers are said to have left with the fund at a time when the slowing economy caused a drop in state revenues.
Moreover, if he read his colleague’s comments, Mr. Girard must have been very surprised to learn that the reorganization of work was not a question of money. However, it is in order to obtain greater “flexibility” that all these billions distributed to state employees were taken away.
Despite this difficult financial situation, services will not be affected, assured Prime Minister Legault. It is strictly forbidden to pronounce the word that begins with an a. Even six years later, the memory of the collapse of Philippe Couillard’s government remains very much alive.
Mr. Legault knows very well that austerity policies and Mr. Couillard’s rush to return to a balanced budget paved the way for his own victory in 2018. He had promised himself never to keep his turn the role of the villain in a revival of this film.
Long gone are the days when all of Quebec, including opposition parties and unions, enlisted enthusiastically in the crusade for a zero deficit launched by Lucien Bouchard. Austerity has become the modern equivalent of the plague. But in the interview he recently gave to The PressMr. Couillard still did not seem to have understood it.
There is also no urgency to return to balance from 2027-2028, as was originally planned. The situation of Quebec’s public finances compares favorably to that of the rest of Canada, especially if we disregard payments to the Generations Fund. And it would be even more enviable if the government had not recklessly multiplied tax cuts.
He will do everything possible to dispel the impression of a drop in funds devoted to health and education. In the next budget, it will appear that the increase in expenditure covers that of “system costs”, which in principle makes it possible to ensure the maintenance of the level of services, since these increases will include the salary increases granted to employees of the State, which are considered as investments aimed even at improving their quality.
The problem is that this level of services is already considered clearly insufficient by a population to whom the CAQ has promised a lot since 2018.
For the moment, it is not clear what concessions have been made by the unions to make the organization of work more efficient, except that the process of assigning teachers will be completed before August 8. In the case of nurses, nothing has yet been resolved. The staff shortage also does not seem to be going away and the top guns of the new Santé Québec agency will need time to improve things. However, time has the unfortunate habit of passing very quickly between two elections.
Good faith is not the primary quality of the opposition parties, who do not bother with semantic questions. From responsibility to rigor, then to austerity, the steps are quickly taken. Since there is never enough money, all evils can be traced to the word that begins with a.