Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard tabled a $158-billion budget on Tuesday.
Spending is up 4.6 per cent, with increased investments in education (9.3 per cent) and health and social services (4.2 per cent). But along with that comes the largest deficit the province has ever seen, projected at $11 billion.
Opposition parties have been critical: Parti Quebecois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon linked the record deficit to tax cuts the government made last year, and Quebec Solidaire leader Gabriel Nadeau Dubois decried the lack of investments to fight the housing crisis and climate change.
CKUT also heard from Colin Pratte from the Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques (IRIS) and Eric Gingras from the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) union about this year’s budget and what they’d like to see going forward.
