Healthcare receives 4.6% spending boost

QUEBEC Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitão introduced his fourth balanced budget plan on Tuesday. Here are the highlights of what new measures were announced (costs are spread over next five years unless otherwise noted):

OVERALL

■ A balanced budget with consolidated revenue of $109.6 billion and consolidated. expenditures of $108.7 billion in 2018-19, for a surplus of $3.1 billion ( before contributions to the Generations Fund).

■Projected economic growth of 2.1 per cent in 2018, 1.7 per cent in 2019.

■ Gross debt at 49.6 per cent of GDP in 2018-19, on track to reach an objective of 45 per cent in 2023.

■ Redirection of $2 billion a year from the Generations Fund to repay the debt.

TAXES

■ Personal tax cut of up to $336 per individual.

■ Tax cuts for small and mediumsized businesses worth $2.2 billion over five years.

■ New tax credit for first-time home buyers ($140 million over five years).

■ Reform of the school tax system, eliminating linguistic differences in tax rates.

■ Additional $100 a year in family assistance per school-age child for the purchase of school supplies.

■ Increase of up to $540 a year in welfare benefits.

■ Imposition of sales taxes on foreign suppliers of paid digital services like Netflix.

■ Requirement for food trucks to begin using sales recording modules.

EMPLOYMENT

■ $277.5 million to improve job training programs and tax credits.

■$190.9 million to encourage immigrant participation in the labour market, including $50 million to boost francization services.

■ $199.4 million to increase the tax credit for experienced workers, including lowering the eligibility age to 61 from 62.

EDUCATION

■ Total increase in spending of five per cent for 2018-19.

■ Increase of 4.8 per cent for spending by school boards in 201819 and four per cent for CEGEPs.

■ $793 million for elementary and high school education, including $212 million announced in November for additional support staff.

■$838 million for post-secondary education.

HEALTH

■ Total increase in spending of 4.6 per cent for 2018-19.

■$1.295 billion in 2018-19 to improve access to health care. $164 million in 2018-19 on prevention programs.

■ $378 million on services for seniors in 2018-19, including $229 million on home services.

TRANSPORTATION

■ A portion (to be negotiated with the federal government) of the estimated $3.9 billion for the extension of the métro’s Blue Line.

■ $500 million for public transit, including $110 million for adapted transit.

■ $193 million to support maintenance of local roads.

■ $65 million to support pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure and safety.

■ $27 million for “new mobilities” like carpooling, taxi-buses and selfservice cars.

■ $20 million for intelligent transportation systems.

■ $50 million to the Transport department for integrated planning of transportation.

■ $32.5 million on railways, including $12.5 million for maintenance of the Gaspésie railroad.

■ $52.6 million for “supporting sustainable development” in land transport of goods.

■ $73.2 million, plus $100 million in infrastructure spending, on regional airports and air travel, including increases to airfare subsidies.

■ $250 million to compensate taxi owners for the loss in value of their permits.

BUSINESSES AND INDUSTRIES

■ $348.7 million in support for agriculture, including promotion of Quebec-based foods.

ENVIRONMENT

■ Additional $94 million over two years for the Drive Green program for acquisition of electric vehicles.

■ $172 million to extend the RénoVert tax credit by one year to March 31, 2019.

JUSTICE

■ $500 million for measures to make the justice system more efficient, including increased use of video conferencing, standardization of police practices, alternative justice, technological upgrades and digitization of court records, hearings, evidence records and correctional records.

■ $60 million over two years from the Cannabis Sales Revenue Fund to help municipalities cover the increased costs related to the sale of cannabis.

MEDIA AND CULTURE

■$113 million on youth and culture, including $35 million for cultural field trips for school daycare students.

■ $168.9 million in new funding for arts funding organizations and cultural tax credits.

■ $5 million to compensate museums that offer one free Sunday a month.

■ $64.7 million for a tax credit to support digital transformation of print media.

■ $11.6 million to make digital video productions eligible for the film and television tax credit.