Quebec premier defends his financial support measures in response to Opposition criticism

Quebec Premier François Legault evidently 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 post published Sunday morning on his Facebook page, Legault outlined a long list of measures taken by his government since he came to power in 2018 to help Quebecers who are struggling to make ends meet.

The premier pointed to the reduction in school taxes, the increase in family allowances, the imposition of a single rate for daycare services, as well sending cheques to counter the impact of inflation.

“I have been working for five years to put more money back in your wallet and I have every intention of continuing,” wrote Legault, for whom posting a long message on the weekend on his thoughts has become a habit.

During their respective pre-sessional caucuses 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.

QS co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois criticized the CAQ government for not having done enough to help Quebecers in these difficult times, saying the premier was “disconnected” from the reality of the most deprived.

“François Legault doesn’t often meet people who do their grocery shopping at Dollarama,” Nadeau said.

For his part, the leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, said putting “more money in the wallets of Quebecers” was among the “broken promises” of the CAQ.

—This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews