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The CAQ Has Renewed the Program Without Presenting the Terms and Conditions
The MNA representing Vaudreuil and Liberal Critic for Municipal Affairs, Ms. Marie-Claude Nichols, deplores the Coalition Avenir Quebec’s incomplete announcement about the Fuel Tax Program and Quebec’s contribution (2019-2023 TECQ). Indeed, on June 21, the CAQ announced the renewal of the 2019-2023 TECQ and the global sums available, without presenting the terms and conditions of the said program, or the amounts allotted to each municipality.
The 2019-2023 TECQ is an agreement between the Governments of Quebec and Canada regarding a transfer of a portion of the revenues from the Federal Fuel Tax and the Government of Quebec’s contribution to municipalities for their infrastructures for drinking water, waste water, local roadways and other types of infrastructures.
As information from the announcements only trickled in, municipalities that previously made a claim to the minister via resolution are worried about how some of the selection criteria could be reinterpreted and are eager to know what the allotted budgets are. Indeed, municipal buildings could be excluded from the program. While previously eligible for financial aid according to the inclusion criteria, some projects such as city halls, firehouses or even municipal garages, will no longer qualify.
Recall that municipalities own more than 60% of Quebec’s public infrastructures.
It is lamentable that the CAQ government announced the renewal of the 2019-2023 TECQ program without providing the municipalities with terms and conditions. Seven days later, uncertainty still reigns among mayors who need to know the program’s admissibility criteria because they will have a direct impact on their municipality’s budget. Quebec’s municipalities are proximity governments and the CAQ needs to work with them. Announcing programs without all the details being ironed out, is that really doing more and doing better?
–Marie-Claude Nichols, MNA representing Vaudreuil and Liberal Critic for Municipal Affairs
