The new "year-one budget" of an independent Quebec, promised by the Parti Québécois (PQ), will finally be tabled in June after multiple postponements.
PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon blamed the delay on the federal government, citing issues related to the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and inflation.
The PQ has "realized the extent of the temporary imbalance generated by the CERB and inflation on the projection of public finances," the party leader justified in a press conference.
He promised the budget would be ready by summer during his party's convention Saturday morning in a Sherbrooke hotel.
He refused, however, to give the names of the economists working on the document. The PQ leader said he preferred to ask them before disclosing their names.
The year-one budget is an exercise that has been done a few times in the history of the PQ to define the financial framework of an eventual sovereign Quebec.
François Legault himself proposed a year-one budget when he was a PQ member, back in May 2005.
The premier now likes to point out that at the time, Quebec received $4 billion a year in equalization payments from the federal government, compared to the $13 billion it receives today, which would make independence a challenge.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 11, 2023.
