The Government of Quebec introduced its budget for 2022-2023 last Tuesday. Here are a few provisions that will be relevant to the people of the Pontiac.

First, the government announced $50 million for the purpose of beginning to expand cellular service in rural Quebec. As of now the funds are just going towards mapping out the territory of Quebec, without any immediate plans to start the . . .

work of building up the necessary infrastructure.

“It’s something that every rural MNA has been advocating for a long time,” said Pontiac MNA André Fortin, who said he was pleased to see cellular service mentioned in the budget. “The important part is exactly how to do that.”

Fortin also provided his point of view on various other aspects of the budget.

“The other thing I was happy to see was the return of an investment credit for companies who are setting up shop in some regions, including the MRC Pontiac,” said Fortin. “That’s something the CAQ government took away two years ago, which I denounced at the time. I’m happy to see it come back.”

“On the other hand, there’s a few things that are clearly missing from the budget,” he said. “There’s no real help for people who need housing. And municipalities everywhere in the province have been saying we need more housing available in our MRC region.

The CAQ budget did invest $640 million in housing, part of which will go towards building 1000 affordable units across Quebec which was lauded as a “good step in the right direction” towards providing more housing by the Federation of Quebec Municipalities.

Fortin said that the lack of housing is especially detrimental to the service the Shawville Hospital can provide. “The way of attracting somebody from Montreal to come in and give a hand for a couple of weeks is to provide them housing in the region – and that’s temporary and available housing in Shawville around the hospital,” said Fortin. “That’s what the health board really wants to bring in some temporary help until they can fix the root of the problem.”

Fortin also criticized the budget for taking away some tax credits associated with purchasing an electric vehicle. “There’s a lot of people who are starting to look at buying an electric car, especially with gas prices,” he said. “So, it was surprising to see the government took away some of the rebates that would be available for people looking to purchase.”

As of the start of next April’s budget the rebate will decrease from $8000 to $7000 upon the purchase of an electric car. The government defended this move by stating it reflects the falling costs of electric vehicles.

Fortin also commented on the promise of the CAQ to provide $500 to every Quebecer who made less than $100,000 last year.

“A lot of people see this as a bit of an election ploy on the part of the CAQ,” he said. “But there is a real issue with inflation if gas prices are going up.”

Fortin said his main issue with the $500 checks is that in the same budget the CAQ has taken “about $700 more from Quebecers in sales and income tax,” and therefore meaning “that Quebecers aren’t better equipped to deal with rapid increase in inflation.”

The CAQ budget also announced $20 million in emergency assistance for intercity transit. The stated goal of these funds is to maintain assistance to public transit organizations.

When contacted, the MRC Pontiac said they have not received any details from the CAQ about how these funds will be used at the MRC level.

Contributed info from Zainab Al-Mehdar

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