FINA Committee Report

Supplementary opinion from the Bloc Québécois —

2022 Pre-Budget Consultations

Discussions about this report took place close to two years after Parliament was closed down because the COVID pandemic had reached our borders. Our lives and livelihoods would end up being turned upside down.

Today, as Québec is back to a level close to full employment, entire economic sectors are still living with the consequences of COVID-19 and restrictions: arts and culture, tourism and hospitality. Our festivals and international conferences, for which Montréal and Québec were popular, will probably need longer support compared to others, which will already surpass their pre-pandemic levels.

With COVID-19 fading away, we thought that our problems would too. But we did not foresee the new worldwide disruption caused by Russia when it invaded Ukraine. Those events set us back decades, to the worst moments of the Cold War.

We cannot even begin to compare the economic impacts to what the Ukrainian people are living through. However, the free market, which was supposed to ensure peace between countries, has been shocked and is suffering the consequences of a new “economic cold war.” Supply chains, which were already hit by the limits of the “just in time” model, will continue to be affected. The scarcity of raw materials such as wheat—of which Russia and Ukraine are major producers—will certainly drive inflation. Insecurity and an uncertain future add to market volatility, as we can plainly see at the pump.

One danger that we need to address is food insecurity and the loss of household purchasing power. Families, seniors and people living alone must not be forgotten by our policies. Coast-to-coast measures, such as cuts to gas taxes, are not the solution. We need to think not only about these groups of people, but also about those whose business models will be disproportionally affected: transport (including trucking), taxis, small business, and agriculture. We will be there for them.

We have more proposals for Québec in connection with this year’s budget. However, we do see that this year’s report includes many of Québec’s recommendations. Having a minority government, with strong representation by the Bloc Québécois, is beneficial for our nation. Nevertheless, here are some recommendations we submitted that we would have liked to see in the final report:

• That the government increases the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) from 22% to 35% of health care costs, and then by 6% annually.
• The government must restore the funding for the Canada Social Transfer (CST) to its 1994–95 level.
• The federal government must quickly confirm that Chantier Davie will be the third shipyard in the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) so that Davie can build one of the polar icebreakers.