Courting Collapse

 

"Were we to listen to the opposition leaders, we would have to raise taxes or make very painful spending cuts of nearly $2-billion. Cuts mean less economic activity, fewer jobs and, at the end of the day, less revenue for the state. We have made a different choice."
Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, Parti Quebecois

Graham Hughes / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo  Former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau, seen here in Montreal earlier this year, says the PQ's proposed values charter goes too far.

"It seems that we can already see what the government considers important and what it considers secondary. And yet strong medicine is needed. This is the first time in thirty years that I am worried about Quebec's economic future."
Former Parti Quebecois Premier Jacques Parizeau

"Since Quebec does not collectively generate enough wealth, the province must go into debt to meet all its collective needs, and has been doing so to an increasing extent since the early 200s."
"The decline in exports in recent years is part of this problem. Quebec, with a worrisome economic performance, is thus living beyond its means."
Robert Gagne, HEC business school, Montreal

Jacques Parizeau, now the elder statesman, no longer the separatist threat who once infamously blamed the "money and ethnic votes" for his failure in the 1995 referendum vote on Quebec separation from Canada, sees no virtue in Pauline Marois's deliberate blindness to leading her province deeper into unsustainable debt.

The provincial deficit stands at $2.5-billion, its debt $197.7-billion, is second only to Ontario's at $262.25-billion. But Quebec is not Ontario, with its greater population base and higher employment rate and economy beginning to surge forward. Quebec is a perennial "have-not" province, traditionally receiving the lion's share of the collective tax-based handout through federal transfer payments from the "have" provinces.

The social welfare programs that Quebecers have always enjoyed, superior to those of any other Canadian province or territory, come at the expense of other Canadian taxpayers. The minority PQ government has been an unpopular one; it gained government again because of voter backlash against rampant corruption under the previous Liberal governments. But the PQ is no slouch in that arena either; investing $450-million in a new Gaspe cement plant, rewarding the Gaspe for its 2012 vote.

The latest report on productivity and prosperity in Quebec from Robert Gagne further inspired Jacques Parizeau to despair over Premier Marois's economic declarations for the province. This is the premier whose party has gained an upsurge in popularity because she knows her constituents well. Since the revelation of the pending 'values charter' restricting religious symbolic garb by civil servants, her approval rating has soared.

"We are going into this wall, and if we continue to think that we can have this quality of life that is not sustainable, we are just going to hit that wall", moaned Coalition Avenir Quebec finance critic. of Premier Marois's "ambitious and audacious" plan to stimulate the economy. "Quebec's economy has broken down. Economists, Quebec entrepreneurs and now today even Mr. Parizeau confirm the situation and the need for urgent action", stated new Liberal leader Philippe Couillard.

Adding that recently released figures indicate a loss of 66,800 full-time jobs for Quebec in 2013, at a time that the rest of Canada gained 137,000 new jobs. "It's simple. While two jobs are being created in the rest of Canada, we lose one in Quebec", he stated. But this is lost on Premier Marois. Who, having gained in popularity, may be deciding to call an election.

And if she succeeds in achieving a majority government, why then, back to the separation agenda, never far from her devious mind.