The salary increases granted as part of negotiations with public and parapublic sector employees represent a bill of $11.6 billion over five years, or 2.5 times the amount (4.6 billion) that the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, in his March 2023 budget.
Faced with such heavy spending, Prime Minister François Legault rightly stated that the next budget will be largely in deficit due to negotiations with the public sector.
A skin-deep reaction from the union leaders: they found the Prime Minister’s comments to be downright inappropriate.
The president of the FTQ, Magali Picard, notably described the Prime Minister’s statement as “extremely clumsy.”
In his opinion, the salary increases granted to state workers are “absolutely not” responsible for future deficits.
According to Mme Picard and his colleagues, Robert Comeau (APTS), François Enault (CSN) and Éric Gingras (CSQ), the real cause of the Legault government’s deficits are “gift vouchers” to taxpayers, tax cuts, subsidies and investments in private companies.
- Listen to the economy segment with Michel Girard via QUB:
LACK OF GRATITUDE
What’s wrong with saying that the new $11.6 billion salary increase bill will have a direct impact on the government’s deficit? Mr. Legault did not say that the increases are not deserved.
He simply stated an accounting fact: yes, this will widen the deficits that had been forecast in the 2023 budget for the coming years.
Now, when union leaders denounce gift certificates, tax cuts, subsidies and investments in private companies, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
For what? Because the 678,000 state employees and the 455,000 beneficiaries of the Quebec government’s retirement plans also obtained the two gift certificates offered by the Legault government in 2022, one for $500 in the spring and another from $400 to $600 in the fall. And they too benefited from the tax cut which came into force in 2023.
This means that state employees and pensioners have cashed gift certificates for a total amount of approximately $1.2 billion. And they will be entitled to the CAQ tax cut which should save them some 1.8 billion in provincial taxes over 5 years.
- Listen to the economy segment with Michel Girard via QUB:
BUSINESSES
In terms of subsidies and investments in private companies, here too I would invite the FTQ and the CSN to show a certain restraint.
With its Solidarity Fund, the FTQ has invested in 3,700 businesses. And the CSN, with its Fondaction, injected a lot of money into 1000 companies.
Every year, Quebec invests some $200 million per year in tax credits to encourage workers to invest their RRSPs in these two workers’ funds. By the way, Ottawa also pays the same amount.
Among the 4,700 companies in which the Fonds FTQ and Fondaction have invested, many of them benefit from government investments.
I therefore invite union leaders to avoid a little union embarrassment when they denounce gift vouchers, tax cuts and subsidies to businesses.