Parental leave was among the cuts the Liberal government are pondering as the National Assembly’s fall session began Tuesday.
The government won't confirm or deny a report that it may cut the parental leave program from the current 12-month average off work to ten or nine months, all in an effort to reach a balanced budget.
Premier Philippe Couillard blames his own civil service for leaks about possible cuts.
“Those are clearly leaks coming from part of the structures in the public service which is acting maybe to slow down certain changes,” he said.
Couillard insists services will be spared, but he said government bureaucracy is too costly.
“I think Quebecers are also alarmed by the fact that we are losing our capacity to choose freely what we want to do with Quebec,” he said.
The opposition PQ said the public is discovering the Liberals have a nasty side.
“Now we see that they're cutting food aid for children,” said PQ MNA Jean-Francois Lisee.“They're cutting homework help.”
If the Liberals cut spending and also raise fees, like daycare fees, the CAQ said that will hurt.
“It's an explosive cocktail, if we do so for the economy,” said CAQ leader Francois Legault.
In a showdown with doctors over long-planned salary increases, Health Minister Gaetan Barrette blames the PQ for halting the raises in January 2013.
“The PQ generated a debt to doctors of roughly $500 million,” he said.
The medical specialists want raises right now, but Barrette insisted he had no choice but to spread them out over several years.
“If I don’t do that, I will put the Quebec back into deficit,” he argued.
Ironically, Barrette is the one who obtained the doctors' raises when he was head of the Quebec Medical Specialists Federation.
