Quebec would be “quickly downgraded” if it stopped financially supporting businesses, says the Minister for the Economy, Christopher Skeete, in reaction to the file of the Journal on this subject published this weekend.
• Also read: Aid to businesses: under Legault and Fitzgibbon, Quebec has granted more than $216 million… per month
• Also read: Aid to businesses: billions of dollars each year, but little transparency
“YES, we need to be careful and use economic levers like business loans with caution and respect, because this represents the money of citizens who have worked hard to earn it,” Mr. Skeete wrote on LinkedIn on Sunday.
“But we must star in this film, otherwise we would quickly be downgraded, without projects of strategic scope, and we would suffer the economic decline that would result from it,” he continued.
Photo taken from LINKEDIN, CHRISTOPHER SKEETE
Nearly $15 billion
The Journal revealed on Saturday that François Legault’s government paid nearly $15 billion in aid to businesses from October 2018 to June 2024. This represents $216 million per month on average, or 67% more than what was granted under the liberal government of Philippe Couillard.
«[Le Québec est] competing with the entire planet to attract world-class companies or to protect corporate headquarters that [y] are already. […] They therefore choose the jurisdiction that offers the most before settling,” argued Christopher Skeete.
“For citizen Skeete, it’s not the aid to businesses that scares me,” he added. What scares me the most is this tendency to take our position in the world for granted. It is not written anywhere that Quebec must have the standard of living that it has.”
Legault reacts
For his part, Prime Minister François Legault defended his government’s strategy on X on Saturday.
“It is thanks to the increase in aid to businesses that our government has managed for six years to have better growth in Quebec in average salary and disposable income than in the rest of Canada. We must not only look at one side of the coin,” he said.
The Minister of the Economy, Christine Fréchette, and the Prime Minister, François Legault.
Photo TOMA ICZKOVITS
“By ensuring that the benefits exceed the cost of aid, all citizens benefit,” insisted Mr. Legault.
However, the government does not provide any detailed assessment of the impact of its economic interventions.
Christine Fréchette, who succeeded Pierre Fitzgibbon as head of the Ministry of the Economy in September, has not made herself available in recent days to discuss the matter with The Journal.
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