Eleven billion. This is the unprecedented size of the deficit projected in the 2024-2025 budget presented by Finance Minister Eric Girard on Tuesday. Waiting for balance to return within five years, the minister has already begun to pull the scissors. Below are articles and columns that paint a picture of the situation.
Record deficit of $11 billion in Quebec
Quebec's deficit explodes and breaks a record: $11 billion, nearly four times what was expected. Legault's government postpones a return to balanced budgets within five years. He's taking an initial look at the tax breaks, but the real cleanup will happen later, largely after the 2026 election.
Read Tommy Chouinard's article
The opposition says the CAQ has “lost control of public finances”.
Opposition parties denounce the bad choices of the Legault government, which led to a “historic” deficit of $11 billion.
Read Charles Lecavalier's article
Six things to know about budgeting
Photo: Edward Plante Frechette, Los Angeles Press
With his sixth budget, which may be the most deficit in history, Quebec's chief financier, Eric Girard, promises to put in place a plan next year to return to the budget balance, the realization of which was postponed to 2029-2030.
With his sixth budget, which may be the most deficit in history, Quebec's chief financier, Eric Girard, promises to put in place a plan next year to return to the budget balance, the realization of which was postponed to 2029-2030. Until then, he is launching a project to “improve” government spending. Here are six things to know about a budget written in red ink.
Read the article written by Hugo Bellon Larose
What moves in your portfolio
Photo by David Boyle, Press Archive
Taxes on smokers Riding green Arrest and Optimize Your Retirement… Our journalists prepare a list of items that may threaten to shake up your investment portfolio.
Read Karim Bensissa's article
Fact Sheet by Francis Weil: What explains the record $11 billion deficit?
Photo: Edward Plante Frechette, Los Angeles Press
Tell you how surprised I am. I was expecting a dull and harsh budget, under the slogan of austerity, but this is not what Minister Eric Girard presented to us.
Columnist Francis File
Read the column by Frances Weil
Column by Marie-Eve Fournier: RRQ – Disabled seniors win their fight against Quebec
Photo by François Roy, Press Archive
Misfortunes never come singly, as disabled elderly people discover with horror on the occasion of their 65th birthday.H birthday. In addition to having to deal with an unfavorable health condition, their pension is reduced because they have not worked – or contributed – for a certain period. After 27 years, this unfair way of doing calculations will be corrected.
Columnist Marie-Eve Fournier
Read Marie-Eve Fournier's column
Fact sheet by Paul Jornet: Red Transition
Photo: Edward Plante Frechette, Los Angeles Press
Quebec Premier François Legault
There is no doubt that this is not the budget that Finance Minister Eric Girard wanted. And he wouldn't be as fond of the next people, if he was the one who left them. He stated in one sentence that the person who would replace him, when he went elsewhere, if he did of course, would be a woman. We'll see…
Columnist Paul Jornet
Read Paul Jornet's column
Editorial by Stephanie Grammon: Deception of the Finance Minister
Photo: Edward Plante Frechette, Los Angeles Press
Finance Minister Eric Girard and Quebec Premier François Legault
It happened in December. Economists and public finance experts saw nothing but fire. But with this stunt, Finance Minister Eric Girard took the liberty of taking Quebec's budget woes even further by postponing the return to a balanced budget until 2029-2030.
Editor Stephanie Grammond
Read Stephanie Grammond's op-ed
The “ambiguity” surrounding investments in public transport raises concerns
Photography by Martin Chamberland, Press
Elected municipal officials in the capital region fear that the provision of public transit services will once again be in jeopardy due to the lack of a predictable fiscal framework in Quebec's 2024 budget. Adding to their concerns are those of transportation companies, which decry the lack of “commitment” on the part of the government.
Read Bruno Marcotte's article
Subsidies for electric cars: brakes for Riding green
Photo by Patrick Sunfaun, Press Archive
The time for great subsidies for electric car buyers is coming to an end. The Quebec government announced a significant reduction in its program Riding green From next year and canceled in 2027.
Read Gabriel Belland's article
Quebec infrastructure plan: 'Hidden debt' continues to rise
Photo by David Boyle, Press Archive
The asset maintenance deficit (AMD), a kind of state “hidden debt,” continues to rise in Quebec despite record investments in infrastructure maintenance. Optimistic, the government believes it can get things back on track.
Read Gabriel Belland's article
Cleaning starts with IT and video games
Photo by Marco Campanozzi, press archive
The Legault government is offering a first glimpse of clean-up aid for the companies it prepares by reducing the generosity of tax breaks that benefit many IT and video game companies. They will have to pay tax here to be entitled to their full rights.
Read Julien Arsenault's article
Housing crisis with the absence of subscribers
Photo by David Boyle, Press Archive
With housing starts stagnating and new investment in affordable housing lacking, young people hoping to buy a home in the coming years won't find a “ray of sunshine” in Girard's budget.
Read Charles Lecavalier's article
Seniors are at the heart of health investments
Photo by Martin Chamberland, Press Archive
Health Minister Christian Dube will rely on an additional $3.7 billion over five years to “provide the best possible care for Quebecers.” Older people are at the heart of health investments, with an additional €1.1 billion allocated to maintain and improve the quality of care and services they provide.
Read Alice Girard Bossuet's article
Quebec saved half a billion dollars in wages during the strikes
Photo by David Boyle, Press Archive
The government saved more than half a billion dollars in salaries during the education strikes last fall, more than the $300 million invested in the education catch-up plan, and reveals the 2024-2025 budget presented in Quebec on Tuesday, which projects growth in Quebec. Spending reaches 7.6% on education
Read Marie-Eve Moras's article
The performing arts sector is worried, and the audiovisual sector is happy
Photo by Jacques Boissinot, Canadian Press Archives
Quebec's Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe
Quebec grants French culture, heritage and language $187 million over five years. The budget worries the performing arts community, which will have to share the shrinking pie, while the audiovisual sector emerges as a winner, encouraged by tax measures requested for several months.
Read the article written by Jan Siaj and Katherine Handfield
“Music guru. Incurable web practitioner. Thinker. Lifelong zombie junkie. Tv buff. Typical organizer. Evil beer scholar.”
