Transportation and decontamination funds among Gatineau’s request for Québec budget

Taylor Clark

Ville de Gatineau Mayor France Bélisle said the city was working away at its requests for the Government of Québec’s pre-budget consultations. When asked on February 7 what elements would be important to Gatineau, Bélisle told reporters that common contenders were transportation and transportation support, along with sufficient decontamination funds.

“This really cuts our wings because we have beautiful strategic land for housing, for a hospital, for a headquarters, for cultural places, and these places are often decontaminated and the costs explode,” said Bélisle.

A new convention centre was also on the mayor’s wish list. “Everyone knows my love for tourism, but especially for the economic impact of business tourism. I think that, obviously, we would like this project to come true and become a reality.”

Bélisle said she would like to see a commitment from the Government of Québec similar to that of the Centre hospitalier affilié universitaire de l’Outaouais. While adequately funding health and education, Minister of Finance Eric Girard noted in a Message from the Minister that the government must act prudently and responsibly by focusing efforts on the needs of the most vulnerable.

“We are also pursuing our efforts to bolster Québec’s economic potential and close the wealth gap between Québec and Ontario,” Girard wrote in his Message on pre-budget consultations.

In an update on the province’s economic and financial situation in the fall 2023, the Premier of Québec explained that, five years ago, the government set out to close the wealth gap between Québec and its trading partners.

“Québec has some unique advantages. It is up to us to leverage those advantages to accelerate the process of closing the gap for the benefit of all Quebecers,” wrote François Legault. According to the update, the government planned to reduce the gap in real GDP per capita with Ontario to less than 10 per cent by 2026 and catch up with Ontario’s real GDP per capita by 2036.

Until 2018, Québec’s average annual standard of living growth was similar to Canada’s and Ontario’s. But gains in real GDP per capita in Québec have not allowed it to catch up with its main partners in terms of wealth, keeping Québec’s standard of living gap relatively stable with Ontario. However, things changed in 2019. The gains in the standard of living continued to rise in Québec while real GDP per capita remained somewhat stable in Ontario and Canada, resulting in a narrowing standard of living gap with Ontario in 2022.

Online consultations for pre-budget consultations closed on January 11, but briefs are available on the Government of Québec website including that of the Ville de Laval which listed four requests from the province.

Photo captions: Ville de Gatineau Mayor France Bélisle takes questions from the press on the city’s requests amid Québec’s pre-budget consultations.

Photo credit: Screenshot from Mêlée de presse of the Comité exécutif of the Ville de Gatineau on February 7