PQ Government Retreats from Balanced Budget Promise

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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In a recent fiscal update, The Parti Quebecois government has confessed that it does not expects itself to deliver balanced books in the next fiscal year as projected by them earlier, and that their figures for this year were way off. The promise made in March was based on assumption that government was running a $1.5 billion deficit in 2013-2014.

In the fiscal update provided on Thursday by Finance Minister, Nicolas Marceau, it was declared that the provincial deficit for the current year has almost reached up to $2.5 billion. It was explained that though the government was able to control spending, it was unable to prevent declines in revenues, which have led to drastic effects on the economy growing at a rate of only 2.1 percent, i.e. much lower than the 3.6 percent predicted in the budget. Marceau alleged that “inflation was much lower than expected” but “the growth of the economy [was slower] which affected the growth of revenue.”

Many critics have ridiculed the government on their realization. Analyst Jean Lapierre alleged that “this year they were supposed to limit expenditures to $1.9 billion. They’re already up to $3.4 billion,” adding that “I don’t think their figures are reliable whatsoever.” On the other hand, CAQ finance critic Christian Dubé stated that “the PQ is lying, it’s totally false.” Dubé stated that “the Parti Quebecois was asleep and just woke up,” adding that “now we’re going to hit a brick wall.” Additionally, CAQ leader François Legault mentioned that the “people can understand that we will leave this debt to our children and I’m sure that not what they look for.”