(Montreal) Prime Minister François Legault obviously did not like the opposition parties accusing him of not having fulfilled his promise to put “more money in the pockets of Quebecers” as they did this week.
In a missive published Sunday morning on his Facebook page, Mr. Legault drew up a long list of the measures taken by his government since he came to power in 2018 to help Quebecers who are struggling to make ends meet.
In particular, the Prime Minister highlighted the reduction in school taxes, the increase in family allowances, the imposition of a single rate for childcare services, as well as the sending of checks to counter the impact of inflation.
Mr. Legault wanted to make this exit, he explained, to respond to the opposition parties in the National Assembly, who accused him this week of not doing enough to help Quebecers to adapt to the runaway rise in inflation.
“The oppositions have just woken up, but I didn’t wait to help the world. I have been working to put more money back in your wallet for five years and I intend to continue,” wrote the Prime Minister, for whom posting a long message on the weekend on his thoughts has become a habit.
Oppositions want to set the tone
During their respective pre-sessional caucus on Thursday, Québec solidaire (QS) and the Parti québécois (PQ) both promised to hound the Legault government about the inflation crisis as soon as work resumes in the National Assembly.
The parliamentary leader of QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, notably criticized the government of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) for not having done enough to help Quebecers in these difficult times, because the Prime Minister is “disconnected” from the reality of the poorest.
“François Legault does not often meet people who do their grocery shopping at Dollarama and it seems. He doesn’t know what he is, checking his AccèsD account before going grocery shopping, ”he argued in the press scrum.
For his part, the leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, bluntly affirmed that among the “broken promises” of the CAQ, there is that of putting “more money in the wallets of Quebecers”.
He estimated that with inflation, the 11% increase in the price of food, the increase in the price of gasoline, the explosion of rents and mortgage rates, Quebec households were rather impoverished during the reign caquiste, despite the government’s checks and tax cuts.
Legault replies
However, François Legault defended himself on Sunday from being “disconnected” from the reality of the most deprived, recalling having himself grown up in a modest family.
“We weren’t rich back home,” he said. To stick to her budget, my mother had a system of small envelopes for each expense: the mortgage, groceries, even an envelope for the Sunday quest! I remember her sacrificing herself for us. »
During the 2018 election campaign, at the end of which he won his first term as Prime Minister, Mr. Legault said he had read the comments left by citizens on his Facebook page which mentioned to him: “We are with you , we support you, but don’t forget us. »
“The stories that were told to me moved me,” he confessed.
That is why, he wrote, one of his first orders to his new finance minister, Eric Girard, was to make a gesture to help the less wealthy seniors.
“We hadn’t promised it during the election campaign, but we still paid an amount of $200 to hundreds of thousands of seniors who had trouble getting there. I remember comments that $200 wasn’t much. But I remembered my mother for whom every dollar was counted. When you don’t have a big income, $200 counts. »
In his message, Mr. Legault then presented the measures taken by his government to put “more money in the pockets of Quebecers”, including payments to help with the purchase of school materials, the addition of a period two hours free to access hospital and long-term care center parking lots, not to mention the checks for $500, then $400 to $600 in a second phase, which have been sent in recent months in response to inflation.
“I could go on for a long time listing all the measures we have taken as a government so that you have more money. No government in Canada has handed over so much,” he boasted, before launching a final arrow in the direction of the opposition parties.
“What made me decide to write all this to you were the attacks by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon. They have just discovered that many Quebecers need more money and help. While I have been working for five years to help the world concretely, the leader of the PQ tore his shirt against tax cuts. Mr. Nadeau-Dubois wanted to dip into your pockets with his orange taxes. You have to have a head…”
The co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, responded to the Prime Minister in a text published on his social networks, Sunday afternoon, saying that “François Legault did not like that Québec solidaire put the finger on the bobo”.
“Everything costs too much. Rents, mortgages, groceries, school supplies. You’ve been telling me about it all summer. The CAQ’s anti-inflation shield was a single-use shield. The $500 check is long overdue and the pressure continues to mount,” Mr. Nadeau-Dubois wrote.
He also points out in his publication that the CAQ’s tax cuts have not helped the middle class, and he invited the Prime Minister to focus on the price of rents and houses.
“The biggest aid check signed by François Legault was not intended for Quebecers. It was for the deputies. $30,000 minimum raise, all at once. He didn’t mention it in his Facebook status. Are you surprised? “, also affirmed Mr. Nadeau-Dubois.
With information from Thomas Laberge and Patrice Bergeron, The Canadian Press
2023-09-03 19:16:05
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