It was with some disappointment that Mathieu Miljours, General Manager of the Vaudreuil Soulanges Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIVS), welcomed the 2024-2025 provincial budget presented this Tuesday by Finance Minister Éric Girard. 

"We would have liked to see investments in transportation. What we're seeing is that there's no good news or bad news in that area; the budget remains more or less the same. We would also have liked to see more support for businesses. Unfortunately, no measures have been added. After all, Quebec businesses play a major role in generating sustainable growth and developing public and private projects, which will enable us to finance our social progress. Unfortunately, this is a missed opportunity," says Miljours.

Experienced workers: a step backwards

With regard to the workforce and the retention of experienced workers on the job market, Mathieu Miljours finds it hard to explain the abolition of the corporate tax credit for hiring these workers. 

"It's not good news, and I don't think the government is going to save much money by abolishing the tax credit," he says.

The FCCQ and CCIVS welcomed last year's announcement of reduced employer contributions to the QPP for workers aged 65 and over. This was a new incentive to retain experienced workers in order to combat labour shortages.

"On the other hand, to learn today that the government is completely abolishing the business tax credit for the hiring of these workers takes us back to square one," say the organizations in a joint press release.

Little regional presence in the IQP

Among the good news in this 2024-2025 budget, the government is presenting a Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI) for the next decade, containing an additional $3 billion, bringing the total to $153 billion by 2034.

Of this new money, the majority will be invested in asset maintenance, in particular road infrastructure, a large proportion of which is in maintenance deficit.

That said, the CCIVS General Manager deplores the fact that few regional projects are included."It's a shame, but the answer we get from politicians when we talk about investments in the region is that the two biggest projects, the hospital and the new Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, are in our region.It's a sad, but easy answer. In reality, the government should look at priorities. Certainly, we would have liked to see something in connection with the completion of Highway 20," he adds.

Successes in francization and education

Despite the disappointments, Mathieu Miljours can't overlook the positive aspects of Minister Girard's budget.

One year after Francisation Québec was set up, the government has realized that the clientele is larger than it had anticipated, and that the services on offer are insufficient. The addition of $400 million over 5 years to address this imbalance, but also to better fund the integration of immigrants, is another positive sign.

"This is good news in itself. It will enable local companies to hire foreign workers. It's also good news to see that investments will be made in education, provided of course that these investments are recurrent. You can't invest for one year and think that all the problems will be solved."