Quebec’s austerity: what and why
La Presse looks at Quebec’s austerity measures in health care, education, public transit and other categories – and why it’s done now, to keep the deficit from growing. Sting in the coda here: Quebec had a surplus when the CAQ first came to power in 2018.
Joey 11:12 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
This is a good start, but it doesn’t get at the real fear – I’m definitely out of my depth here, but my impression is the government is worried that if it can’t show it has a handle on its deficit, the ratings agencies will downgrade Quebec and the cost of our interest payments will go up, which will edge out even more necessary spending. It feels like we are avoiding a more difficult conversation – what level of spending can we reasonably afford, and how do we allocate those dollars?
Meezly 11:28 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
The CAQ gave themselves a 30% salary boost a couple of years ago. That must’ve contributed to the deficit!
Tim S. 11:36 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
I would phrase it a bit differently – are we willing to pay the necessary taxes to get the services we want? A quick look at various comparison tables suggest that Quebec is among the highest taxed jurisdictions in Canada – different tables break it down differently – but I’m sure we also have more public services. So yeah, if we want those services we should pay for them. If not, not.
Kate 11:44 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
We’ve always known we’re among the highest taxed people in North America, but we’ve usually been able to get services in return. The problem will be if we’re still highly taxed, but then have to pay again if we want timely health care or quality education.
Ian 12:53 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
Well you don’t need to look far to see waste even in these times of austerity.
The Montreal police 2025 budget: $824M … and they were 50 million over in 2024. In 2023 alone the budget was increased 63 million. The cops of course want even more increases becaue they are in a “recruitment crisis”.
I wonder how many more services we could have if instead of policing poverty the city invested in housing and social services…
That’s just Montreal, of course, but nicely illustrates how things work all the way up. Similar misdirections and excesses exist at every level. For instance, how much do you think was spent in total to ban hijabs so far, and now Legault is worried about people even speaking Arabic in public? Now, how many hijab-wearing nurses left Quebec in th midst of a nurse shortage?
I wonder how many more services we could have if instead of policing ethnicity the province invested in education and healthcare…
su 13:01 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
Would it be helpful to nationalise some of our mineral resources (such as lithium) which are currently being extracted at a lucrative pace under the auspices of ” La Grande Alliance” ?
Uatu 14:23 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
My department had a meeting last week about the crazy budget cuts coming our way. It doesn’t look good and I have no idea where they’re going to cut even more.That’s also on top of upcoming retirements and staff on sick leave. We’re already spending lots on overtime because of lack of staff too. It’s okay though because I know that though our hard work and sacrifice we will help pay for the 7 billion dollars invested in the Northvolt battery plant and the imaginary batteries it produces. (Okay, maybe I’m just a little bitter lol)
Kate 14:34 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
Is it generally understood that the Northvolt debacle is why Pierre Fitzgibbon bolted from politics?
Ephraim 14:36 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
Austerity doesn’t work! Austerity fails because cutting public spending slows growth, and increases inequality. It weakens essential services, while failing to significantly reduce debt as lower growth leads to lower tax revenues. Instead of recovery, it prolongs economic stagnation.
Basically, instead of focusing on cutting bad expenses and increasing efficiency, they essentially cut the growth in GDP which in turn brings in less taxes and then more belt tightening. The UK did this repeatedly under the Tories and it’s disastrous.
vasi 16:57 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
Has anyone done any analysis on why we have such a deficit? I mean _analysis_ here, not punditry please. The budget is public, and we should be able to tell which departments are spending more, what govt. revenue looks like, etc.
H. John 17:49 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
I’ve always found the writings of Luc Godbout, La Chaire de recherche en fiscalité et en finances publiques de l’École de gestion de l’Université de Sherbrooke, to be a useful for understanding Quebec public finances:
The Quebec Budget: Time for alarm or calm? – Luc Godbout, U of Sherbrooke
https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/march-2024/quebec-budget-deficit/
and,
Where has the last five years’ growth in Quebec’s tax revenues come from?
https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/january-2024/do-quebec-taxes-really-keep-going-up/
At the bottom of his article he provides a link to “Bilan de la fiscalité au Québec – Édition 2024”
While the complete document is in French, the Highlights (about 10 pages) are available in English.
https://cffp.recherche.usherbrooke.ca/bilan-de-la-fiscalite-au-quebec-edition-2024/
The Bilan is issued each year and the new version covering 2024 is coming out Jan 9th, 2025.
Tim S. 18:32 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
Thanks H. John. The decrease is gas tax revenue is particularly interesting. Is it too soon to start mileage taxing on EVs?
Ian 20:45 on 2024-12-08 Permalink
It’s like when everyone quit smoking and the province no longer got a buck a pack from 3/4 of the population every day.
Mileage tax is coming, for sure. Taxing gas-powered cars is a big source of income, and despite the urbanist tropes, roads aren’t going away since evrything is delivered by car, truck, and van now – municiplal services like police & fire and ambulances that need roads notwithstanding. That golden goose has to evolve with the times.