{"id":6936,"date":"2014-10-27T14:31:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T18:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/opinion-dont-fall-quebec-governments-line-spending-cuts-2\/"},"modified":"2021-01-01T11:36:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T16:36:31","slug":"opinion-dont-fall-quebec-governments-line-spending-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/opinion-dont-fall-quebec-governments-line-spending-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Don&rsquo;t fall for the Quebec government&rsquo;s line on spending cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-kjei176u-b8afb1637870ef10699f5ba2a201259c\">\n#top .av-special-heading.av-kjei176u-b8afb1637870ef10699f5ba2a201259c{\npadding-bottom:10px;\n}\nbody .av-special-heading.av-kjei176u-b8afb1637870ef10699f5ba2a201259c .av-special-heading-tag .heading-char{\nfont-size:25px;\n}\n.av-special-heading.av-kjei176u-b8afb1637870ef10699f5ba2a201259c .av-subheading{\nfont-size:15px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='av-special-heading av-kjei176u-b8afb1637870ef10699f5ba2a201259c av-special-heading-h5 blockquote modern-quote  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_textblock  avia-builder-el-first '><h5 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >Montreal Gazette &#8211; October 27, 2014<\/h5><div class='av-subheading av-subheading_below'><p>(en anglais)<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"special-heading-border\"><div class=\"special-heading-inner-border\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-kja6vwlx-7321b96d822ed3b99d8636cde99f2db2 '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p><a href=\"http:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/quebec\/opinion-dont-fall-for-the-quebec-governments-line-on-spending-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6934 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Montreal Gazette - Opinion: Don't fall for the QC government's line on spending cuts\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-705x705.jpg 705w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-450x450.jpg 450w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette.jpg 934w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reading the newspaper,\u00a0you might be convinced that we are living in a province teetering on bankruptcy and can\u2019t afford our social programs. That is certainly the line that we are being expected to swallow by the Quebec government, with its incessant calls to reduce spending in all ministries. We are being told that cuts, affecting the poorest and lower middle class, will solve our problems, without any recognition of the control the government has on its revenue stream.<\/p>\n<p>Recently it was leaked to the media that the Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity, Fran\u00e7ois Blais, was considering cutting the welfare cheques of people living with more than one roommate, a choice many have to make when living on a\u00a0monthly income of only $610. However, we have not heard any rumours yet about\u00a0Finance Minister Carlos Leit\u00e3o planning to restore\u00a0the tax on capital for financial institutions,\u00a0something that could bring in\u00a0about $600 million a year.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6932\" style=\"width: 505px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6932\" class=\"size-portfolio wp-image-6932\" src=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-montreal-que-october-23-2014-project-genesis-organize-495x400.jpg\" alt=\"MONTREAL, QUE.: OCTOBER 23, 2014 -- Project Genesis organized a zombie march at Dorchester Square in Montreal, on Thursday, October 23, 2014 to bring attention to the slow pace of hearings at the Regie du Logement. (Dave Sidaway \/ THE GAZETTE)\" width=\"495\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-montreal-que-october-23-2014-project-genesis-organize-495x400.jpg 495w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-gazette-montreal-que-october-23-2014-project-genesis-organize-845x684.jpg 845w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 495px) 100vw, 495px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6932\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MONTREAL, QUE.: OCTOBER 23, 2014 &#8212; Project Genesis organized a zombie march at Dorchester Square in Montreal, on Thursday, October 23, 2014 to bring attention to the slow pace of hearings at the Regie du Logement. (Dave Sidaway \/ THE GAZETTE)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When the government explores ways to increase\u00a0its revenue,\u00a0it turns to user fees and consumption tax hikes \u2014\u00a0regressive measures that again punish those with the lowest incomes, while leaving untouched such gifts\u00a0to the wealthy as the tax deductions\u00a0for capital gains. Abolishing this tax deduction\u00a0would be estimated to increase government revenue by $739 million a year, more than\u00a0triple the $220 million the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity is being asked to trim from its budget.<\/p>\n<p>We have been making these choices for a long time now and the impact is undeniable. Just 10\u00a0years ago, the poorest among us were living at their wits\u2019 end, making only 60\u00a0per cent\u00a0of what they needed to survive. Today they make less than 49\u00a0per cent\u00a0of subsistence income.<\/p>\n<p>Wealth inequality is even more worrisome, as Statistics Canada data show that the top 10\u00a0per cent of Quebecers own 43.4 per cent\u00a0of the province\u2019s wealth, while the bottom half of the population owns only 7\u00a0per cent\u00a0of the wealth. In other words, most of the population owns little or nothing, with no nest egg to cushion them from misfortune and the major gaps in the social safety net that is supposed to prevent them from falling into destitution.<\/p>\n<p>These people come into Project Genesis all the time\u00a0\u2014\u00a0minimum-wage workers, the precariously employed, the over or under qualified. They fall sick, or have an accident, can\u2019t work or can\u2019t find work, and suddenly can\u2019t pay the rent. They ask us what benefits they are entitled to. And we are obliged to say that there is almost nothing for them, that welfare requires them to liquidate their bank accounts and then will give them a benefit that is so low they are likely to still be unable to pay the rent. As for social housing, there\u2019s not enough of it to go around and new units are few \u2014\u00a0thanks once more to austerity.<\/p>\n<p>How to explain this situation to the person faced with going to the food bank for the first time?<\/p>\n<p>Rather than continuing this merry-go-round of cuts to services to finance tax cuts leading to further cuts to services, it might actually be time for an honest conversation on the type of society we want to have.<\/p>\n<p>Do we want to continue to witness a worsening situation for most households, the bottom and middle included, or do we want instead to strengthen our social safety net and actually get at the root cause of our budget situation?<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Cathy Inouye<\/strong> is a community organizer with Project Genesis.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1027-montrealgazette-com.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PDF<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Montreal Gazette &#8211; October 27, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[242],"class_list":["post-6936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dans-les-medias","tag-delais-a-la-regie-du-logement"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 04:54:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6936"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16880,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6936\/revisions\/16880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}