The opposition parties in Quebec City are demanding to know where the PQ government, already posting a deficit that is $1.8 billion larger than expected, expect to come up with funding for a $2 billion economic stimulus plan.
The Liberals and the CAQ say the economy is stalling and that the government's plan needs to be backed up by a realistic budget or a fall election.
Premier Pauline Marois responded by asking questions of her own
"Do the Liberals agree that we should deal with the damned problem of mold in schools that they left us?" said Marois in the National Assembly on Tuesday.
Marois, however, was overlooking that one of the school board's with the worst mold problem is the Commission scolaire de Montreal, which was chaired from 1998 until 2012 by Diane De Courcy, the current PQ immigration and cultural communties minister.
Beginning in 2007 the previous Liberal government gave the CSDM an average of $55 million per year to deal with mold problems.
Renovations in schools is one way the PQ wants to create jobs, while another is to entice companies with discounted electricity.
The opposition says the PQ plan is too little, too late, seeing as the province has lost tens of thousands of jobs since the PQ came to power.
Liberal leader Philipppe Couillard said the PQ has nothing to campaign on except controversy.
"The government has been trying to open a succession of electoral windows. First with the Charter [of Quebec Values]. Doesn't seem to work that well, then the school boards, ah not sure - let's try the economy now," said Couillard.
According to Couillard, business owners don't want more tax credits and subsidies.
"Again and again they told me the priority for your government, when you become the government, is to diminish our tax burden, give us some oxygen."
He said the PQ have do so much damage to the economy he could not promise to balance the budget if the Liberals were to form a government.
"It's going to be difficult but in order to answer that question we need to see the budget."
The CAQ said on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday, that the PQ needs to explain where it's coming up with billions of dollars
Francois Legault said his party is working on a list of items the government can cut in order to achieve a balanced budget
"Christian Dubé will table in a month a report, he's looking at each expenses so that's what we have to do. That's what the Parti Quebecois and the Liberals didn't do in the last ten years," Legault said.
The PQ, when elected and in its first budget, promised to balance the books with a zero-deficit budget in 2014.
