‘Breathing room’ for families: Leitão
Quebecers — particularly those with families — will be getting a tax break next week when the government tables an economic update.
Finance Minister Carlos Leitão confirmed Wednesday he will provide an update on the province’s financial situation Nov. 21.
“We will be doing what we said we would do, which is to give Quebec families a bit more breathing room, to lighten the tax burden,” Leitão told reporters.
“As the same time, we are also going to make public an anti-poverty strategy that will be properly funded, properly financed.”
Leitão would not confirm reports in La Presse that the total tax reduction could be about $1 billion, which would amount to about $200 per citizen. There are also rumours Quebec will make the tax cut retroactive.
The cut has been expected. Quebecers will be going to the polls in about a year and the government is slowly shifting itself into charm mode.
In a Facebook posting Wednesday, Leitão and Premier Philippe Couillard teamed up to say Quebecers deserve to benefit from the province’s economic upswing of the last few years.
“Why are we in a position to offer this good news?” Couillard asks in the post. “It’s because together we put the house in order. We have given ourselves the wiggle room for today and for the next generation.”
Adds Leitão: “We are doing this because we have the means but also to reinforce the confidence of citizens in the economy. With more money in their pockets, they will be able to spend more and further contribute to economic growth.”
The economic update, which will resemble a mini-budget, will allow the government to update Quebecers on the state of the union.
The last economic data, released in June, revealed Quebec is sitting on a $2.5-billion surplus, and that is after dumping $2.25 billion into the anti-debt Generations Fund.
The premier has been cautious about what he proposes Quebec do with its surpluses, arguing for many weeks that tax cuts he promised in the last election campaign came in the form of Quebec’s decision to abolish the health services tax and an increase in the base level at which people have to pay taxes, meaning more people don’t pay.
The anti-poverty plan is aimed specifically at the 40 per cent of Quebecers who pay no taxes. Quebec is on the record as saying it wants to get 100,000 people out of poverty within the next five years. Social Solidarity Minister François Blais will detail the plan at a later date.