2023-09-07 00:00:00
At the Quebec Liberal Party, “the environment will always transcend all issues,” interim leader Marc Tanguay assured Wednesday. However, he said he was once morest the introduction of a kilometer tax and he refused to envisage a Quebec in which fewer cars would drive.
“The plan is clearly not to tax,” insisted Mr. Tanguay in an exchange on eco-taxation. “The PLQ plan is, among other things, the REM,” he added, referring to the project launched by the Liberal government of Philippe Couillard in 2016.
In front of the journalists, he insisted on the importance of developing the public transport offer. ““Tôuttt is in tôuttt”, as Raôul Duguay used to say. If you intend to reduce the number of vehicles, you must improve the public transport offer much more than that and today in Quebec, we are not there, ”he lamented.
Over the years, the Conseil du patronat du Québec, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal and CAA-Quebec have taken a position in favor of the introduction of a kilometer tax to replace others that currently apply to motorists. The Metropolitan Community of Montreal is studying this avenue, which consists of charging motorists according to the number of kilometers they travel.
Consider mileage tax
Tuesday, in an interview with Radio-Canada, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, declared that we will “have to think regarding” “the whole question of mileage taxes”. “Ms. Guilbault, the Ministry of Transport, must take a position,” he added.
The next day, his colleague in Finance qualified his remarks during an interview with 98.5 FM. “Arriving with additional taxes, it’s really not the right time,” said Eric Girard. Except that “if there were no registration fees on small cars, maybe there would be more small cars than today”, he argued.
According to Mr. Girard, Quebecers will have to “change their behavior”, and not just electrify their means of transport. “If everyone who has two cars in their driveway today, five years from now has replaced their two gasoline cars with two electric cars and we have the same number of cars on the road, the same traffic jams … It’s not more pleasant, a traffic jam in an electric car than in a gasoline car,” he said.
Marc Tanguay did not want to say the same. He also said that Mr. Fitzgibbon was content to say, “with both hands in his pockets”, that the car fleet should be reduced. “You have to be thoughtful, have a vision on it,” he said. In addition to public transport, electric vehicles are in his opinion part of the solution and it is therefore necessary to “promote” their purchase, he repeated.
“More combative”
Chief Tanguay also listed his party’s three priorities at the dawn of a new parliamentary session. The Liberals will take care to “preserve the purchasing power of Quebecers”, to stimulate the construction and supply of housing and to “enhance [les travailleurs de] the front line”, such as nurses, teachers and educators.
“We are going to wear it in bad weather, the word of Quebecers,” promised the Liberal leader. “You will see me more combative than ever,” he said. For the moment, however, his party has not unveiled any new proposals. He will do so “in due time,” Mr. Tanguay promised.
The interim Liberal leader recalled that his party wants to abolish property transfer taxes (commonly called “welcome tax”) on the purchase of a first property. The PLQ also wants to remove the sales tax on “essential products”.
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