Q & A: Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard on Quebec Budget 2023 - 2024

CTV News Montreal's Kelly Greig spoke to Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard about the budget he tabled on Tuesday. Watch the video above to see the full interview. Here's the transcript of that interview.

Kelly Greig: Mr. Girard, I know you delivered on a promise that was made to cut income taxes, which will make a lot of people happy. Some economists are worried this will make inflation even worse. Do you share those concerns?

Minister Eric Girard: Actually, the timing of the personal income tax cut couldn't be better. We have a slowing economy because of interest rate increases, because of the purchasing power that has been decreasing in 2022. And what we're seeing right now is a global slowdown. And the personal income tax cut will arrive in July and will support the economy and increase the labour supply.

Kelly Greig: Looking at the numbers, it's those who earn the most who will be getting the most savings with those tax cuts. How do you defend that decision? a lot of people will be criticizing it.

Minister Eric Girard: Actually everybody that is paying taxes, will get a tax cut. It's the 4.6 million Quebecers, in proportion of what they paid, those that earn less get a higher reduction. And it's important to say that it's a permanent tax cut. You are getting this tax reduction every year for every future year that you will have income. And there's nothing that prevents somebody that is making $40,000 this year to make $50,000 in three years, or $70,000 in eight years. So it's dynamic. It's permanent, and it's dynamic. It will be good for the economy, good for the labour supply.

Kelly Greig: As always, there's a large focus on health care. Recruiting doctors is one aspect of it. There's also mental health that has been in the spotlight so much recently, what's in this document that can help Quebecers today?

Minister Eric Girard: Especially for mental health -- $200 million. Since we since 2019-20, we've increased spending on mental health by $1 billion to approximately $200 million a year. I think the number of consultations in 19-20 was in the neighbourhood of 165,000 a year. We're now working around 250,000 consultations. So we’re doing a lot of improvements. It's complex, it's difficult, but we have an interdisciplinary approach with the nurses, the social workers, the doctors, the schools. It's a difficult challenge. We're putting more resources and we have a fantastic Minister Lionel Carmant who's working on that.

Kelly Greig: The future, always hard to predict, but there's concerns about a recession. What are the chances Quebec ends up in a recession in the near future?

Minister Eric Girard: It's approximately 50 per cent. Because in the second quarter in the third quarter of 2023, Canada as a whole and Quebec growth will be in the neighbourhood of 0 per cent. So when you grow to so low, the probability that you're below or higher than 0 per cent is 50 per cent. So there is a slowdown in the world economy. It's happening right now. It's Q2, Q3 2023. We will go through this. Quebec has a lot of comparative advantages. We have a high savings rate, a low debt-to-disposable-income ratio on average lower than Canada. We will have a tax cut to stimulate the economy. We have a lot of advantages.

LISTEN on CJAD 800 Radio: What are you getting from the Quebec budget?