The Prime Minister of Quebec has promised Quebecers another check to offset inflation, that is, if he is re-elected.
François Legault, speaking at the National Assembly on Tuesday, said the province had underestimated the impact of inflation on daily spending.
The Avenir Québec Coalition (CAQ) government recently gave $ 500 to all Quebecers who filed a tax return and earned less than $ 100,000, although experts say it would. contribute to inflation problem.
“At the end of 2022, we will send a new check, if we are elected, obviously,” he added.
Legault did not specify whether the check would be $ 500 or otherwise.
The statement was met with ridicule from opposition politicians in the legislature, who said the move was little more than an electoral ploy.
“So he’s buying votes. Go on,” said Marc Tanguay, Quebec’s Liberal MP for Lafontaine District. “François Legault thinks he can buy votes!”
Tanguay said this is not the vision of the province that most Quebeckers believe they want.
Quebec Solidaire co-spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois asked why the government is not doing more to address the underlying issues that are pressing the pockets of Quebecers.
“Legault is facing the cost-of-living crisis as if we’re dealing with potholes. It’s just fixing holes,” he said.
Nadeau-Dubois asked if the prime minister would continue to send checks every two months and argued that the money would be better spent trying to tackle the housing crisis.
Quebec Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel said all political parties have strategies in place to deal with inflation. (CBC)
Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel has denied that her government is trying to buy votes with this new measure.
“We’re not doing that,” he said emphatically. “We are responsible and have a strategy to address a real situation for Quebec.”
LeBel said it is clear that the Quebec government must intervene if inflation continues to rise, and the way its party is offering to do so is by giving money to people who can spend as it sees fit.
Disappointed community organizations
Saray Ortiz Torres, community organizer of Project Genesis, a non-profit anti-poverty agency based in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Montreal, also thinks so.
“[If we have a surplus] why don’t we see long-term solutions? Why don’t we see the solutions we need to deal with the housing crisis, to deal with the rising cost of living? ”He asked.“ All we can think about is that this is just a attempt to be re-elected “.
Torres said the government could be building social housing or increasing the amount of money offered through social programs.
“The basic one-person welfare check is $ 725 a month. And I don’t think anyone right now can survive or survive on just over $ 700 a month,” he said.
“I honestly think this is an insult to low-income workers, an insult to community organizations across the province that are underfunded.”
TARGET | How much will $ 500 help Quebecers cope with the rising cost of living?
How much will $ 500 help Quebecers cope with the rising cost of living?
Tasha Lackman, executive director of the Depot Community Food Center in Montreal’s NDG neighborhood, and Adejoke Olaniyan, a single mother who is a client and volunteer, say the announced $ 500 tax credit won’t go far enough to help low-income families income.
Tasha Lackman, executive director of the Depot Community Food Center in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood, said the main problem is that many Quebecers do not earn a decent salary.
“We had the biggest month we’ve had in four months, and at the end of the month it was crazier than ever because people are running out of money,” he said.
He said he had news of customers after the first check was announced, saying he wouldn’t make much of a difference because money was “a problem every month and that will hardly hurt.”
“There is no doubt that everyone is feeling the rising cost of living. But not everyone feels the same,” he said.
Lackman said the government should take a more specific approach or allocate that money to community organizations.
He estimated that only one percent of the annual budget of the Deposit came from the government and said the additional funding would have made a “massive difference.”
Instead, the money went to some households that did not need help and did not pay it.
Lackman said the Depository appealed to those who did not need the money to donate it and received an overwhelming response online.
“[Lots of people] “When the check comes in, we’ll make a donation to the Deposit, because we don’t need it, and you can use that money more effectively than we can,” he said.
“I think a lot of people had very good intentions, but at the end of the day … we just got a check that was explicitly a $ 500 check from someone who said, ‘This was my credit and I want the Deposit here you have “. ‘”