Quebec Election Day 17: Anglade says Duhaime not leading by example with unpaid taxes

Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade says the somewhat ambiguous story about Eric Duhaime’s unpaid taxes shows he’s unfit to lead.

Varying reports show Duhaime, the leader of the Quebec Conservatives, didn’t pay school taxes since 2018, and property taxes from 2020 and 2021.

The Journal de Montreal, for instance, says Duhaime owed Quebec City $13,850 in unpaid taxes. La Presse is reporting a bailiff needed to get involved in one instance.

While Duhaime has said the story was blown out of proportion, Anglade says it’s problematic.

“At the end of the day, everybody, all citizens are supposed to pay their taxes. Period,” said Anglade, who was in the Montreal-area riding of Boucherville for a news conference. “And if you aspire to lead Quebec, the least you can do is to lead by example. That’s not what he’s doing.”

Duhaime says he was helping a friend in need

Duhaime clarified the situation in a series of tweets Tuesday morning, saying it was because he was helping a friend.

“I wanted to help a long-time friend, a father of four children who did not have it easy,” he tweeted. “He lives in the house. I asked him to maintain it, pay taxes, heating, hydro and cable. Even that, he couldn’t.

“It is exactly these people that I wish to represent in the National Assembly. I never made a penny with that house.

“However, I am far from a perfect guy. I too have paid late bills, forgotten to pay my hydro and had parking tickets. I have also publicly taken full responsibility for the late tax payment.”

Point de presse : franciser efficacement les immigrants https://t.co/tROHSKVDP8

— Eric Duhaime (@E_Duhaime) September 13, 2022

Anglade says Duhaime’s latest explanation does not hold water.

“The people that come to my office in my riding, they ask us to help them pay their bills, not to find ways not to pay their bills,” she said. “That’s what they’re asking me to do. So I don’t think it has anything to do… you can’t make any correlation between the two.”

Duhaime spent all day Tuesday in Montreal, starting with a news conference in the morning on teaching immigrants French.

Leaders reveal personal wealth

Also Tuesday, party leaders released details of their personal wealth.

• Anglade was on top with reported assets of $12 million.
• Coalition Avenir Quebec Leader Francois Legault was at $9.5 million.
• Duhaime came in third at $2.7 million
• Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon at $410,450.
• Quebec solidaire’s Nadeau-Dubois reported a net worth of $104,285.

It has become a practice during Quebec election campaigns for leaders of political parties represented in the national assembly to disclose the value of their assets for transparency reasons.

Free cultural outings for students, says Québec solidaire

Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois was in the northwestern town of Rouyn-Noranda for a news conference on education and culture.

While visiting the Rouyn-Noranda Museum of Art in Abitibi, Nadeau-Dubois said every elementary and high school student will have access to four free cultural outings per school year.

The party wants to invest $40 million a year to increase the number of free trips from two to four. They say the measure has two objectives: to promote academic success and mental health for young people, and revitalize the cultural sectors of all regions of Quebec.

“Going to the theatre, discovering music, learning to paint or going to the movies is not a privilege, it is a factor of success,” Nadeau-Dubois tweeted. “We are going to make it even more accessible from the beginning of our children’s school career.”

Aller au théâtre, découvrir la musique, s’initier à la peinture ou faire du cinéma, ce n’est pas un privilège, c’est un facteur de réussite. Nous allons le rendre encore plus accessible dès le début du parcours scolaire de nos enfants.

— Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois (@GNadeauDubois) September 13, 2022

Liberals want to reintroduce RénoVert program

On Montreal’s South Shore, Anglade said the Liberal Party is committed to reintroducing the popular RénoVert program, which provided financial assistance to homeowners wishing to make renovations to reduce their energy consumption.

The tax incentive can reach up to $10,000 depending on the value of the expenses made by the owners.

“We must also act to reduce our energy consumption in commercial buildings, which is why a Liberal government would amend the Building Code to establish exemplary energy standards,” said Anglade in a press release.

“It will also reduce the pressure of demand on Hydro-Quebec. In short, everyone will win.”

Annonce du jour https://t.co/vcvtqYttMO

— Dominique Anglade (@DomAnglade) September 13, 2022

CAQ campaigning in former Liberal stronghold

Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault visited a Montreal riding  that was held by the Liberals for decades but is now a three-way battleground.

Legault’s trip to the Verdun riding reflects the growth in support for his party and the serious problems the Liberal campaign is facing in many former strongholds.

Poll-aggregating website qc125.com places the CAQ and Québec solidaire in a tie in Verdun, with 27 per cent support each, and has the Liberals in third with 22 per cent.

The CAQ won two seats in Montreal during the 2018 election, but is now polling in the lead in seven ridings in that region.

Later in the day, Legault met with Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.

The CAQ announced three projects for the Porte de l’Est:

• Redeveloping the A-25 and A-40 service roads into an urban boulevard under the Anjou interchange;
• Building an overpass over the A-25 for buses, cars, cyclists and pedestrians to connect boulevards Bélanger and Châteauneuf;
• Building a link above A-25 at Yves-Prévost Boulevard to connect two residential neighbourhoods.

—With files from The Canadian Pressp