François Legault shows up empty-handed at the FQM annual conference

Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press Prime Minister François Legault speaks to the Fédération québécoise des municipalities

Prime Minister François Legault warns municipalities: the Quebec government has no room for maneuver at the moment.

Mr. Legault gave a speech Friday morning at the annual conference of the Fédération québécoise des municipalities (FQM), in Quebec.

He appeared in front of the approximately 2,000 participants empty-handed, saying that municipalities should not expect an increase in their funding.

“Of course if we talk about progress , I want to be honest with the rest of you, there is no room for maneuver in Quebec, and there is no question of increasing taxes,” he declared.

< p>In the press scrum after Mr. Legault's speech, the president of the FQM, Jacques Demers, argued that municipalities were facing several new challenges.

However, he affirmed that the important thing was to preserve the achievements of the fiscal pact signed in 2019, which notably allows municipalities to receive 1% of the sales tax (PST).

“Progress , we will find it anyway in the QST point. As of this year, it’s $445 million. In 2030, that point is $1 billion,” said Mr. Demers.

He was also reassured that the Prime Minister reiterated his electoral promise to pay $470 million over four years to villages to support local services such as food markets.

Mr. Legault also reaffirmed his intention to complete the cellular network by 2026. On September 14, in an interview with Radio-Canada, his own MP Gilles Bélanger doubted that the project would indeed be realized.

< p>As of today, 3,400 public service jobs have also been transferred to the regions, according to the Prime Minister.

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Housing and electricity

Although there is no increase in funding planned, François Legault confirmed on Friday that there will be new amounts for housing in the economic update which will be presented in November.

And he has dangled possible additional transfers if the government manages to increase electricity production.

“Do we want to continue to develop additional capacity to be able to attract companies that will create paying “jobs” and wealth, which will eventually allow us to transfer more money to municipalities ? » launched Mr. Legault.

He added that he expected discussions that were “not always easy” with the First Nations.

At the start of the week, Mr. Legault responded to a journalist that “in most cases”, it would require the agreement of the First Nations concerned to build new dams.