April 20, 2010 - No. 74 -
Supplement
Quebec Budget Reveals a Government
in Contradiction with Its People and Society
Protests by Quebeckers against the anti-social, anti-worker
nation-wrecking of the Charest government, from 2005 to the present.
From left to right: "Let's liberate ourselves from the Liberals";
"Favouring the rich -- a disturbing and unacceptable policy"; "Charest:
the multinationals are ready to close Quebec..."; "Education for the
benefit of all generations."
The Liberal Party in Power in the Quebec National
Assembly presented its 2010-2011 budget, March 31. The budget contains
various initiatives, which fall into four main categories:
1) widespread increases in individual taxation including
user fees for social programs and public services;
2) a declaration to reduce social programs and public
services;
3) an assertion that the government refuses to bargain
with public sector workers and will instead dictate terms of their
working arrangements, including wages and benefits;
4) an ideological and political assault on what is
broadly considered the Quebec social fabric.
Missing from the budget are initiatives to fulfill the
government's social responsibilities towards the people and Quebec
society. The budget contains no determination of the main problems and
contradictions confronting the Quebec people and society and any
proposals for their resolution. The budget
contains no sense that the government even knows what problems are
plaguing the people and society. Especially glaring is the absence of
any discussion or proposals as to how the government will lead in
strengthening the socialized economy, which is in crisis. The
socialized economy is the only source of social
product to meet the needs of the people, the general interests of
society and specifically to fund social programs and public services.
Social programs, public services and enterprise and a
healthy growing Quebec standard of living are the backbone of the
Quebec economy and social fabric. Their growth and strength are the
greatest antidote to the destructive private business cycle. The Quebec
budget has it backwards by attacking
the economy's backbone, its social programs, public services and
enterprise, and the people's standard of living. The proposals to
increase individual taxation and user fees for social programs and
public services will transfer value away from the working class and
middle strata and out of the economy into the hands
of the international financial oligarchy, resulting in a lower standard
of living and a weaker economy more prone to crisis.
The government's tax and user pay proposals are
regressive. They violate the progressive trend of history that
governments, to meet the needs of the people and general interests of
society, should claim the revenue they require directly from public and
private enterprises and not indirectly from
individuals.
Budget Proposals for Increased Individual Taxation
Budget proposals for increased individual
taxation are
the following:
Quebec sales tax (QST)
* One percent increase January 1, 2011 to 8.5 percent
* One percent increase January 1, 2012 to 9.5 percent
* Combined with the GST, the total tax on most goods and services will
be just under 15 percent in 2012.
Increasing the Quebec sales tax, which is mostly paid
by individuals, will amount to an additional sales tax of $400 million
in 2010-2011, $1.9 billion in 2011-2012 and $3.1 billion in 2012-2013.
The total Quebec sales tax (not including GST and other
consumption taxes) will be $14.920 billion in 2012-13.
Note: The total estimated Quebec tax on corporations in
2011 = $4.046 billion. This tax amount from corporations is even less
than the $4.589 billion received from just three government enterprises
-- Hydro-Québec, Loto-Québec, Société des
alcools du Québec. Just imagine the enormous public revenue
if Quebec had vibrant and diverse public enterprises in forestry,
mining, metallurgy, steel, food, pharmaceutical, hospital supplies,
other manufacturing and the wholesale/box store sector.
Fuel Tax Increase
The budget includes a hike of one cent per litre in the
fuel tax as of April 1, and similar annual increases of one cent a
litre for three years after that. Total fuel tax estimate for 2010-2011
= $1.837 billion.
The budget also allows Quebec City and Montreal to levy
an additional $0.015/litre fuel tax "to generate funds for public
transit and infrastructure."
Note: Total expenditure in 2010-2011 on transportation,
which includes roads and urban transit = $2.788 billion.
Capital-centred accounting calculates investments in transportation as
a capital expense but unlike a factory capital expense, the accounting
method considers the public value invested in
transportation as somehow lost or non-returnable to the economy in the
form of transferred-value as it is used up or amortized. This of course
is impossible or rather disinformation. The amount invested in public
infrastructure is indeed returned to the socialized economy but it is
mostly seized in a hidden way by
the monopolies and other businesses operating in Quebec. A certain
percentage of transferred-value from public infrastructure (including
education) should appear on the annual balance sheets of monopolies as
part of their gross income. This transferred-value from public
infrastructure should be returned to the public
treasury so that it can be reinvested but this is not done. The flow of
value through the socialized economy is mystified to obscure the
reality that the state provides the rich and their monopolies with the
means to protect and enlarge their empires and for a privileged class
to become richer at the expense of the working
class, middle strata and society.
Poll Tax for Health Care
The budget proposes an annual poll tax for health care
that must be paid by every adult. The health care poll tax begins in
2010 at $25, increases to $100 in 2011 and rises to $200 in 2012. In
addition to the health care poll tax, the Liberal Party in Power is
floating a health care
user fee proposal of $25 per visit to a doctor or medical institution.
The health care poll tax and user fee are part of a
massive disinformation campaign as to what are the problems confronting
public health care delivery. Public health care has never been truly
public in the sense of free from private profit. The health care system
is a source of immense private profit for
the pharmaceutical and medical supply monopolies and others such as
those companies engaged in supplying contract-workers. The draining of
value from the health care system by the monopolies represents the
greatest contradiction that must be resolved but the government does
not even recognize the problem. Instead,
the health care poll tax is designed to drain even more money away from
the people to be handed over to the private health care monopolies.
The budget brags about public money to be spent on
health care "technological and computer infrastructures and the
implementation of promising new technologies." The pressure on public
health care comes from the fact that it is not truly public and free
from private profit from the basic production
of necessary material inputs, including construction and financing,
pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies, up to the delivery of
services. The government budget is silent on this very real problem and
contradiction between public and private, and instead has mounted a
diversionary campaign to make the people
pay a health care poll tax and user fee. The disinformation campaign
does not highlight the fact that investments in health care are
positive
for society and the people but rather the government speaks endlessly
of high health care "costs" without identifying that those "costs"
mostly originate from private enterprise sapping
value from the health care system and that health care private
enterprise
is the culprit that must be restricted.
User Fees
User fees for all public services except daycare will be
increased annually according to the cost of living and what the
government determines as "fair" and in line with "the cost of products
and services." The Liberal Party in Power speaks of charging "fair user
fees" as a "cultural revolution"
for Quebec. For example, the daily rate for adults charged by the
Société des établissements de plein air du
Québec for access to national parks will immediately be raised
from $3.50 to $5.50. This "cultural revolution" is in fact a
counterrevolution backward from the concept of universality of access
for all to their
public institutions and services regardless of ability to pay.
Tuition Fee Increase
Montreal, April 1, 2010: "Our education is not for sale."
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The budget announced that the "government will raise
university tuition fees as of fall 2012." This proposal is in line with
the user pay mentality of the Party in Power and is part of its
cultural counterrevolution. The concept that education is a right has
long been part of Quebec's
social fabric not in the sense that it has been achieved but that for
society to progress it must move toward a guarantee of that right,
which means of course universal free public education from daycare
through university without any restrictions regarding ability to pay.
The proposal to increase tuition fees also obscures
the economic reality that monopolies benefit from educated youth and
use them to strengthen their empires but refuse to acknowledge that
fact and make available social product produced by Quebec workers
within their empires for investments in public education. This denial
by the monopolies and government that
investments in education, health care and other social programs are
necessary for the functioning of a modern economy and the blossoming of
society marks the ruling elite as obstacles to the progress of Quebec.
The rich and their monopolies present themselves as unique, unitary
islands within a chaotic global
market, a surrounding economic sea of
"Education is a right,
not a luxury"
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competition and danger that
cannot and should not be tamed with the human factor/social
consciousness in control. Officially, they do not even recognize Quebec
society but only its existence as a market. Of course, such assertions
are for public posturing for they know that
they would not survive an instant without the protection and care of a
highly organized monopoly capitalist state machine and the material
blessings produced by the entire working class not just their "own"
workers.
The proposal to raise tuition fees is part of the
campaign to wreck public education and make its delivery a private
enterprise from daycare through university. This campaign to privatize
education is in direct contradiction with the reality of modern Quebec
as a socialized economy and nation that requires
modern socialized public institutions and enterprises under the
conscious control of the actual producers, the working class and middle
strata, to move forward in the twenty-first century.
Price of Electricity to Rise
The budget speaks of an annual increase of 3.7 percent
in the price of electricity for Quebec individuals and small and medium
business beginning in 2014-15 and subsequent increases tied to the cost
of living. Large industrial customers are specifically excluded from
these price increases.
The section in the budget on the pricing of electricity
reveals the monopoly capitalist outlook of the Liberal Party in Power
and its contempt for the people. The monopolies are considered the
source of wealth not the working class harvesting through hard work the
bounty of Mother Earth. The people
are ridiculed as anti-conscious consumers that must be reminded through
higher prices to conserve what the monopolies supposedly provide. The
budget reads, "The low rate (for electricity) has caused Québec
consumers to undervalue this precious resource. There is little
incentive for Quebeckers to improve their energy
efficiency."
Then, revealing the government's double standard when
it comes to the monopolies, the budget says, "Industrial customers
paying the large-power rate ('L') will be exempt from the increase in
the price of heritage pool electricity.... For these customers, which
include 150 large industrial companies,
electricity accounts for a large portion of production costs."
Why is it that individuals and small and medium sized
business supposedly "undervalue this precious resource" and have little
"incentive to improve their energy efficiency" yet 150 of the largest
monopolies where "electricity accounts for a large portion of
production costs" do not need such unseemly
prodding such as higher prices to be conscientious citizens but on
their own initiative in spite of an extremely low price of electricity
are happily righteous creatures leading us forward to a bright green
future? This mindset is the one that wants to turn over all the human
and material resources of the nation to the
monopolies to make them competitive in the global market and hope that
somehow wealth will trickle down to us humble folk and life will be
just rosy. Does the government even live in Quebec? Do they not know
these 150 largest monopolies and what they have done to the Quebec
economy and society during
the latest economic crisis? Right at this moment the people of Montreal
are mounting a challenge to one of these monopolies called Shell and
are fighting for it not to close their refinery. What of the antics of
the forestry monopolies and on and on. No. this Liberal Party in Power
spouts inanities such as, "Many
of these companies are located in the regions, where their contribution
to the economy and employment is vital. Higher electricity costs would
considerably reduce their profitability and could even cause some of
them to close."
Does the government think we are idiots? Of course
"these companies located in the regions" are "vital" "to the economy
and employment." They are mostly the only game in town! That is one
more reason why the monopolies must be restricted in their wrecking
activity and brought under the control
of the people and a socially responsible government. Restricting
monopoly right includes turning "the 150 large industrial companies"
into public enterprises if that is what it takes to force enterprises
to serve the regions and Quebec's socialized economy and society and
not their own exclusive narrow interest to protect
and expand their private empires.
In sum, it is estimated that the budget's proposed
taxes and user fees will amount to individuals paying $10 billion more
annually to the government. Canadian Press estimates, "A family of four
earning $70,000 will pay $650 more in 2011, and $1,250 more in 2012. A
single person earning $40,000
will pay $365 more in 2011, and $1,250 more in 2012."
These regressive tax measures amount to a direct
transfer of wealth away from the working class and middle strata. The
annual social product in Quebec is mainly divided into claims by
workers and the middle strata, claims by governments and claims by
owners of capital. A transfer of social product
away from the claims of workers and middle strata will directly reduce
their standard of living, as it will eventually end up as claims by the
owners of capital, especially in this climate of downgrading social
programs and public services. The government's tax and user pay
proposals are regressive. They violate the
progressive trend of history that governments, to meet the needs of the
people and general interests of society, should claim the revenue they
require directly from public and private enterprises and not indirectly
from individuals.
This budget is a fight between the people and owners of
monopoly capital over claims on the social product produced by Quebec
workers. It is an effort by international finance capital to reduce the
claims of Quebec workers and middle strata, lower their standard of
living, and shatter the social fabric
of the nation with a cultural counterrevolution. This attack on the
claims of workers and middle strata is taking place all over the world
such as in Greece where the international oligarchy has put tremendous
pressure on the people. Everywhere one of the phoney excuses is the
debt and deficits that are creations of
monopoly capital from which it profits whether they are growing or
being reduced. This Quebec budget is an attack on the people and
society. It reveals the Liberal Party in Power as a government in
contradiction with the people and society.
To be continued: This article on the budget will
continue with discussion on the other three main initiatives of the
government -- the declaration to reduce social programs and public
services; the assertion that the government refuses to bargain with
public sector workers and will instead dictate terms
of their working arrangements, including wages and benefits; and, the
Party in Power's ideological and political assault on what is broadly
considered the Quebec social fabric. The article will then discuss what
is missing from the budget statements of the Liberal Party in Power
such as any initiatives to fulfill the
government's social responsibilities towards the people and Quebec
society and lead the people in resolving the contradictions that have
emerged spontaneously with the development of a modern Quebec.
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Website: www.cpcml.ca
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