Where Quebec’s political parties plan to spend — and cut

With all major provincial parties having published their financial plans, Quebec voters now have a clearer picture of their options in the upcoming election.

A CBC News analysis of their election frameworks reveals a crowded fiscal middle ground, flanked by two starkly different approaches to how taxpayer money is collected and spent.

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and Quebec Liberal Party pledge relatively modest increases in annual spending, while the Parti Québécois (PQ) plan says it would achieve a net-neutral budget. 

Québec Solidaire (QS), on the other hand, promises major increases in funding for public transit, health care and education — paid for by higher taxes, including a new tax on assets over $25 million.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Quebec Conservatives propose deep spending cuts to pay for a major reduction in income and corporate taxes.

The chart below shows the projected spending increases or cuts for each of the five main provincial parties, averaged out on an annual basis.

For comparison, Quebec’s budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year was $171 billion.

The revenue projections for the five main parties play out similarly, with QS promising more taxes and new revenue streams, while the Conservatives pledge major tax cuts.

The Liberals and CAQ project an additional $2.4 billion and $1.9 billion annually in revenue, respectively.

The Conservatives and the PQ both say they would eliminate billions in direct corporate subsidies, with the PQ using those savings to lower the general corporate tax rate from 11.5 to 9.5 per cent, while the Conservatives slash it further to 4.7 per cent.

All five parties technically project a balanced budget by fiscal year 2029-30 to respect the province’s budget law. 

In fact, the PQ says it would achieve a balanced budget a year earlier, in 2028-29.

Uncertainty over projections

The economic assumptions backing these projections are far from guaranteed, said Philippe Goulet Coulombe, an associate professor at Université du Québec à Montréal.

“All the parties have their own specific uncertainties,” said Goulet Coulombe.

Québec Solidaire, for instance, projects its proposed tax on fortunes over $25 million would generate $5 billion.

But Goulet Coulombe warned that relying on a wealth tax is inherently risky because it is tied to fluctuating asset values rather than a steady income stream.

“If the market tanks in the meanwhile … your revenue goes down too,” he said.

The PQ, CAQ and the Liberals all rely on more than $4 billion in additional transfer fees from Ottawa, which Goulet Coulombe pointed out are not guaranteed. 

The PQ’s plan to balance the budget a year earlier than other parties hinges largely on making more than $6 billion in savings through efficiencies in government bureaucracy.

The Conservatives, for their part, say they will be able to balance the books through greater economic growth from deregulation, more interprovincial trade and revenue from shale gas extraction.

QS would free up $2.5 billion per year by suspending payments to the Generations Fund. The fund was created in 2006 by the government to reduce public debt and ease the burden on future generations. The four other parties would keep those payments intact.

On the surface, the spending isn’t widely different between the PQ, Liberals and the CAQ when broken down by sector, either.

For instance, they all propose moderate increases in health-care spending, but their specific promises vary widely.

The PQ said it would save $40 million a year by abolishing Santé Québec, the public agency established by the Legault government. 

QS also allots more money for front-line health-care services, such as local clinics, but its health-care budget would actually amount to a reduction because the party expects to save more money overall by negotiating lower prescription drug prices and reforming doctor pay.

For Goulet Coulombe, the differences across all five platforms offer Quebecers a wide range of choices.

“It gives voters the full palette of offering,” he said, noting again that every party’s math carries inherent risk. 

“Past a year or two, the uncertainty around the forecast is often more relevant to economic planning than the forecast itself.”

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