Public sector negotiations: PQ believes the CAQ has room to maneuver

While 80,000 nurses are on strike, the Parti Québécois (PQ) accuses the Legault government of having produced an economic update “strangely tailor-made to support the argument that it is impossible to provide attractive salaries.”

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Eric Girard said the government’s financial framework was “tight,” that the government’s current offer had been budgeted for and that any additional spending would require borrowing.

These assertions were called into doubt on Wednesday by PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who underlines that the government has notably adopted a “very aggressive approach” to return to budget balance in 2027-2028.

“We must respect the intelligence of workers, there, they are not fooled,” he argued in a press conference at the National Assembly. “It is too easy [to] hide behind the economic update. […] The government can make other choices.”

Both Plamondon and the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), Monsef Derraji, stressed that the government had granted a tax cut to five million Quebecers, thus depriving itself of $1.7 billion per year.

François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) also distributed cheques of $500 in the spring of 2022, and of $400 to $600 the following fall, they recalled.

“We make these choices, then we present ourselves in front of the workers and say ‘Listen, look at my budget update, there is no room for maneuver.’ Well yes, there is one,” says Plamondon.

For example, “we can choose to maintain the debt-GDP ratio, to make offers which give the public sector a chance to keep their staff, to attract them, and which do not impoverish any worker,” according to him.

Derraji also accused the CAQ of having squandered the $7 billion in surplus accumulated during the Liberal years. “We see that the government did not hesitate to distribute checks to the right and left for electoral reasons. […] This is why today it no longer has any room for maneuver. Who is responsible? It’s François Legault and his Minister of Finance,” Derraji denounced.

On Wednesday, Quebec Solidaire (QS) deputies joined nurses on the strike pickets.

“If the update was arranged with the view of sending a message to public sector workers, it’s a failure,” declared QS parliamentary leader, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who believes that the CAQ has already lost “the battle of public opinion”.

For his part, Premiere François Legault continued to defend his government’s offer.

“We are offering an average salary increase of 14.8 per cent. The unions are asking for 21 per cent. That’s $3.5 billion more,” he argued from his seat in the National Assembly’s Blue Room.

—This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French Nov. 8 and translated by CityNews.