Bloc Québécois Issues 6 ‘Unavoidable’ Budget Demands to Minority Liberals

The Bloc Québécois has made public its list of demands to the minority Liberal government to gain the party’s support for the upcoming budget, saying six of those are make-or-break.

Bloc MP Jean-Denis Garon presented 18 demands from his party on Oct. 14 at a press conference in Ottawa. Among the six demands that he said are “unavoidable,” Garon mentioned unconditional increased health transfers to Quebec and new federal funds for provinces to spend on infrastructure, without strings attached.

The Liberals currently have 169 seats in the House of Commons, three shy of a majority government. The Liberals will have to rely on support from one opposition party to pass their upcoming budget, which is usually considered a vote of confidence in the government.

“When I close my eyes and visualize, it’s difficult to see myself standing up and voting for a budget,” Garon said of the Liberal’s expected budget proposal. The MP said it’s the responsibility of the minority government to reach out to other parties to move things forward. “It’s my understanding that up to now there’s not much outreach being done,” he said.

Garon, who serves as his party’s finance critic, said the Nov. 4 federal budget will be introduced as Quebec and other provinces are going through multiples crises, which he cited as affordability, housing, trade, climate, and public finances.

“The demands from the Bloc Québécois I’m making today are concrete measures to solve these crises,” Garon told reporters.

The other key demands from the Bloc include increasing Old Age Security payments from the age of 65, offering an interest-free loan to first-time homebuyers, and re-introducing and making permanent the Rapid Housing Initiative, which provided capital for the construction of affordable housing.

The last make-or-break demand from the Bloc is for Ottawa to reimburse $814 million to Quebecers for the carbon tax, or fuel charge. Quebecers were not paying the federal fuel charge since the province has its own system, but the Bloc argues residents in other provinces received a carbon rebate for a carbon tax they had not yet paid.

Prime Minister Mark Carney set the consumer fuel charge rate to zero starting in April, and Garon said sending the carbon rebate afterwards amounted to “buying votes” during the April election. The last Canada Carbon Rebate payments started being sent out on April 22, while the election was held on April 28.

Carney has previously defended the move in the House of Commons.

“Quebec did not pay the consumer carbon tax. Therefore, this is not unjust,” he said during question period in June. “It makes sense that the rebate would be paid one last time as an adjustment for Canadian families.”

With the Bloc’s support for the budget appearing unlikely at this stage, the Liberals may have to rely on the NDP for the crucial vote.

The NDP has said it will wait for the budget to be introduced to make its position known. NDP interim leader Don Davies said he met with Carney earlier this month to share his party’s priorities.

“We communicated very clearly that we would not be able to support a budget that takes an austerity approach,” Davies told reporters on Oct. 8. He said he favours an approach of “investing” in workers, businesses, communities, and infrastructure.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the budget will follow’s Carney’s concept of “spending less” to “invest more.” Carney has previously acknowledged his budget would have an austerity aspect while at the same time plan large federal expenditures to stimulate economic growth.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has projected a deficit of $68.5 billion in the upcoming budget, a large increase over previous official projections, and climbing debt-to-GDP ratio over time. Interim PBO Jason Jacques has called the country’s fiscal situation “unsustainable” and “shocking.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has criticized the projected deficits he calls “inflationary” and has called for billions of dollars in cuts to the federal bureaucracy in the upcoming budget.