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home / 世界杯决赛2022

health should be main focus of provincial budget, liberals say

while it's true the government is sitting on fat surpluses, now is not the time to use that money to pay for tax cuts, quebec liberals say.

by the montreal gazette

feb 19 2020
read time 2 minute read
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quebec — the absolute priority for the legault government’s march 10 provincial budget should be health spending, the provincial liberals said tuesday.

carlos leitão, a former liberal finance minister, and andré fortin, the liberal health critic, said while it’s true the coalition avenir québec government is sitting on hefty surpluses, now is not the time to use that money to pay for tax cuts.
they said pressure on the health system will only grow in the coming years because of an aging population, so now is the time to invest in front-line services, the duo said.
“we believe that the priority of all priorities must be, has to be, health care,” leitão said at a news conference.

they said a series of pilot patient ratio projects designed to improve patient flows in health institutions should be expanded as a way to curb wait times, which continue to grow . that will cost money, which the caq government has in hand.

the last economic update forecast a $1.7-billion surplus for 2019-2020, an amount that has probably shrunk following news last week that the government has set aside $600 million in a contingency fund to cover losses as a result of its investment in the airbus 220 project.
what that tells leitão is that quebec’s surpluses won’t last forever, so they should be spent carefully and in strategic areas.
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“the government is spending at a much faster pace than revenues coming in,” leitão said. “with that trend, we will be back in a deficit situation by 2021-2022. to govern is to choose, to make choices.”
later, during question period in the legislature, finance minister eric girard was cautious about the liberal request to pour more money into health. he said last year’s budget included an additional $280 million for home care and $200 million to hire more people for health clinics and long-term-care facilities.
he said the 5.4-per-cent increase in spending in the 2019-2020 budget was a historic high in quebec.
when fortin pressed health and social services minister danielle mccann on wait times for care that continue to grow, mccann deflected his question, saying the government hired 4,000 more nurses this year — 1,000 more than a year earlier.

pauthier@postmedia.com | twitter.com/philipauthier

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