inflation, and the cash is scheduled to arrive a few months ahead of the provincial election.The money will be transferred directly into Quebecers’ bank accounts after they file their 2021 tax returns, Finance Minister Eric Girard told reporters Tuesday after tabling the budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
It’s his fourth and last budget before Quebecers head to the polls in October.Girard insisted the payments aren’t to curry votes and help his government win a second mandate but to help Quebecers weather significant inflation that the government expects will reach 4.7 per cent in 2022.
Some 6.4 million Quebecers will receive the payment, at a total cost of $3.2 billion.“Inflation is exceptional, so the compensation is exceptional,” Girard said of the $500 payments, adding that his government expects inflation to drop to 2.3 per cent by the second half of 2023.
Quebec finance minister discusses deficit, economic growth ahead of Tuesday’s budget The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain bottlenecks and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he added, have helped created a general rise in prices that has been “higher and more durable than originally anticipated.”“The rise in gas prices is now; the rise in food prices is now,” Girard said, justifying the government’s decision to send payments to Quebecers instead of cutting income taxes.