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2022-2023 Québec Budget: New Funds Injected into Several Sectors and Assistance to Reduce Inflationary Pressure
The fourth and last budget of the François Legault government before the fall general elections has been wide-ranging. Health, education, tourism, culture, regional development, environment, community, almost everything can be found in this budget, which is injecting more than $3.2B to give 6.4 million adult Quebecers with a net income of $100,000 or less, a cheque of $500 to cope with inflationary pressure.
Québec’s public finances are in good shape. In 2022-2023, the budget balance will post a deficit of $6.5B once $3.9B is paid into the Generations Fund. The financial framework provides for an allowance for economic risk and other support and recovery measures of $2.5B in 2022-2023 and $1.5B per year as of 2023-2024. The government expects a balanced budget by 2027-2028, but it should be acknowledged that this could be achieved as of 2023-2024, for accounting purposes (excluding the Generations Fund payment). Revenues could reach $138.5B in 2022-2023, with a 2.2% growth. Expenses will have risen to $136.6B in 2022-2023, with an increase of 4.8%.
In addition to providing massive support for major sectors such as health ($9B over five years), education ($2.8B over five years), tourism ($304M over six years), regional economic development, culture and the environment (including an additional $1B in investments for the new 2022-2027 implementation plan of the 2030 Plan for a Green Economy), this budget aims to support businesses and economic growth through initiatives totalling close to $4.2B between now and 2026-2027. It includes:
- An additional $1.3B over five years to implement the new Québec Research and Innovation Strategy;
- An additional $110M over three years to renew the new Québec Life Sciences Strategy;
- $156M to help Québec businesses stimulate their investments in new technologies by extending the increase in the tax credit for investments and innovation (C3i) by one year;
- $1.5B over six years to support regional development by contributing to their prosperity, promoting the development of the forestry sector and protection of wildlife capital and by preparing the tourism sector for recovery;
- $255M over five years to continue supporting regional air transportation by fostering the establishment of accessible regional services;
- $290M over five years to bolster the integration of immigrants into the labour market;
- $627M over five years to support the growth of the bio-food sector;
- $257M over five years to support the recovery and to promote Québec’s culture and cultural sector.
Furthermore, the budget grants $2.2B in support to reinforce community action and implement measures for supporting communities. For vigorous regional economies, it’s important to acknowledge the significant contribution of community organizations as a vector for growth and social inclusion.
In order to ensure better tax fairness, the government intends to revamp its digital services offering, in particular, by launching the Revenu Québec VISION project. This project is designed to transform the provision of services to individuals and businesses by introducing a more efficient, simplified digital tax administration model. The government also plans to devote $1M every year as of 2022-2023 to fight against illegal and abusive practices in the financial market’s crypto-asset sector.
For more information on the tax measures announced in the 2022-2023 budget, please download our Tax Bulletin.
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Download the document 2022-quebec-budget_eng
2022 Québec Budget