GST holiday and $250 check | Pablo Rodriguez denounces a “problem of equity”

(Ottawa) Justin Trudeau’s former political lieutenant in Quebec, independent MP Pablo Rodriguez, opposes the Liberal government’s intention to grant a two-month GST holiday on certain products and a check for $250 $ to all workers earning income less than $150,000.

Thus, Mr. Rodriguez intends to vote against any bill aimed at implementing these two measures announced with great fanfare by the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, last week.

According to him, these measures are unnecessarily expensive – $6.3 billion – and give a financial boost to well-off people who don’t need it, while forgetting retirees. Worse still, they will not have a structuring effect on the economy, asserted Mr. Rodriguez in an interview with The Pressstressing that taxpayers’ money must be managed with the greatest prudence.

The former Minister of Transport, who left his ministerial functions in September in order to sit as an independent MP and run for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), severely judges the fairness of these two measures.

Mr. Rodriguez also adds his voice to the concert of criticism that has been heard since Thursday from groups representing retirees, small businesses, the premiers of certain provinces, economists and the opposition parties.

Mr. Rodriguez made his opposition known the same day he delivered a farewell speech in the House of Commons. The former minister intends to resign as a federal deputy in January in order to devote all his time to the race for the leadership of the PLQ.

“These two measures are not structuring. There is no long-term vision. This is likely to have minimal impact for a number of people with an extremely high cost of $6.3 billion. In the same way that I was against the Legault government sending checks, I am against what the federal government is currently doing,” said Mr. Rodriguez.

“I will vote against the bill. […] I wonder how this decision was made. That a couple of two workers earning around $150,000 can each have a check for $250, but that a retiree who has $45,000 in pension does not have access to it, there is, in my eyes, a problem of fairness,” he added.

An uncertain future for measurements

Mr. Rodriguez’s exit comes at a time when the main ministers of the Trudeau government are multiplying their statements to extol the merits of the GST holiday on groceries and essential items between December 14 and January 15 and the sending of the $250 check in the spring.

Uncertainty, however, hangs over the adoption of these measures which aim, according to Justin Trudeau, to give a little oxygen to Canadian families affected by the rising cost of living. First, work in the Commons is paralyzed by a debate on a privilege motion from the Conservative Party because the government refuses to hand over documents linked to the mismanagement of a foundation which was abolished and which was responsible for distributing funds for green technologies.

Then, the Trudeau government, which is in the minority, must obtain the support of an opposition party to adopt these measures. The New Democratic Party (NDP) supports the idea of ​​a GST holiday, but demands that the $250 check also be paid to retirees and students.

“It’s a real slap in the face!” Why do liberals exclude the most vulnerable people? “, thundered NDP leader Jagmeet Singh in the Commons on Monday.

The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, accused the Liberals of buying votes. “The process is crude. A few months before an election, such an enormous distribution of money to such a large number of people is electoral, only electoral,” said the Bloc leader. His party is still calling for the adoption of Bill C-319, which would offer a 10% increase in the Old Age Security pension program for people aged 65 to 74.

Pablo Rodriguez turns the page

In his farewell speech to the Commons, Pablo Rodriguez also recalled his political career over the last 20 years in Ottawa, crowned with six electoral victories and only one defeat — in 2011 during the orange wave.

“I am closing an extremely important chapter in my political life. […] These were unforgettable moments for a simpleton who arrived here in Quebec, who speaks neither French nor English, and who managed to gain people’s trust,” Mr. Rodriguez also underlined in an interview, recalling that he arrived in Quebec at the age of 7 with his family who were fleeing Argentina.

His contribution to federal political life was hailed in unison by the Conservative Party, the Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Green Party.

“He’s a nice guy. I will never forget everything we did together,” testified the parliamentary leader of the Bloc Québécois, Alain Therrien.

“It is still remarkable that he ends his career here without having made a single enemy,” said NDP parliamentary leader Peter Julian, paying tribute to him.