QUEBEC CITY -- At a time when Quebecers are tightening their belts in the face of inflation, Quebec solidaire (QS) intends to press the Coalition avenir Quebec (CAQ) on the subject by posing a 'portfolio question' per day to the government.

"Life has never been so expensive in Quebec, and where is the CAQ?" said QS co-leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois at a press briefing Thursday morning on the sidelines of his party's pre-sessional caucus at the National Assembly.

According to Nadeau-Dubois, the government is not doing enough because Premier Francois Legault is out of touch with the realities of people with low incomes.

"Francois Legault doesn't often meet people who do their grocery shopping at Dollarama," he says. "He doesn't know what it means to check his AccèsD account before going grocery shopping," he said.

As a result, QS promises to ask the CAQ one question a day about the cost of living.

"We'll talk about the cost of groceries, the cost of rent, the cost of mortgages. We're going to talk about the cost of going back to school," Nadeau-Dubois explained.

In recent days, QS has also indicated that it wants to impose the issue of climate change on the agenda of parliamentary debates.

Nadeau-Dubois asserts that his party can question the government on both the cost of living and the environment.

"We're never going to choose between climate change and the cost of living," asserted the parliamentary leader.

"In fact, these two issues are linked. This summer's extreme weather, there's a link between that and the price of strawberries, blueberries and carrots right now at the grocery store," he added.

On Wednesday, QS indicated that it would be tabling a bill in the next few days so that Quebecers would know the greenhouse gas emissions of government infrastructure projects.

The political party is also calling on the Quebec government to grant emergency assistance to the agricultural sector, which has been hard hit by the summer's extreme weather events.

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PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon also pledged on Thursday to ask his first question in the House on the cost of living. He also put forward six proposals to help taxpayers, including $1.5 billion in grocery vouchers financed with Hydro-Quebec overpayments.

Among the CAQ's broken promises: "More money in Quebecers' wallets," said the PQ leader, echoing a phrase Legault has repeated many times since 2018.

He believes that, with galloping inflation, an 11 per cent increase in supermarket food prices, rising gasoline prices, soaring rents and mortgage rates, Quebec households have actually become poorer under the Caquist reign, despite the government's cheques and tax cuts.

At a press conference following a meeting with his colleagues to prepare for the return to Parliament, he presented six measures to help households.

He recalled that the CAQ had not honoured its commitment to repay $1.5 billion in Hydro-Quebec overpayments.

St-Pierre Plamondon is therefore calling for this amount to be redistributed in grocery vouchers to Quebecers, modulated according to income: $562 for families earning less than $100,000 and $350 for households earning between $101,000 and $160,000.

The sovereignist leader also calls for a guaranteed meal for every primary school pupil, which a study estimates at $1.7 billion but which the PQ puts at less.

He suggests a government advertising campaign to promote platforms that compare product prices in grocery stores.

He also demands that Quebec's three supermarket giants be called before a parliamentary commission to discuss their excess profits.

The PQ is also proposing the creation of a Consumer Protection Bureau to monitor food price trends.

Finally, St-Pierre Plamondon proposes that the government adopt the PQ's project on food waste.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 31, 2023.