I'm off to the media lockup for today's budget; I'll be helping out with the CBC radio (English) budget special. You can listen here; it starts at 4:00 pm, EDT.
I won't have internet access, but I'll take notes and post them when I do.
6:27: I'm free! Free! The day's events are documented below the fold.
10:26: And we're off. They're forecasting 4 years of deficits, so the Quebec govt is suspending its balanced budget legislation. With any luck, they'll leave it on the shelf indefinitely if they have to suspend it whenever there's a recession.
10:30: They're raising the PST in 2011! As regular readers will recall, announcing a future increase in consumption taxes is something I've been recommending.
10:40: I just saw a former student, now some sort of deputy-deputy-minister, and congratulated him on the PST measure. The Ministère des finances has many former Laval economics students, and they're making me proud today.
10:44: It looks like we'll only be on the air until 5:00. That's not much time. Usually, I have to concentrate on trying to speak slowly; I guess that won't be necessary today.
11:45: Lunch!
12:10: It's more and more like old home week: two more former students have stopped by to explain important points.
12:30: Minister's press conference. Apparently this is something that doesn't always happen for federal budgets.
1:03: Finally, to the questions from the journalists. So far, everyone is talking about the deficit, the future PST increase and such. Nothing so far about the effects of the recession and what the govt is or isn't doing to ease its effects.
2:11: Mme Jérôme-Forget - someone here referred to her as J-Fo, and now everyone with the CBC show is doing so - has just sat down at our table for an interview in English with our host. She is following tradition by wearing a spectacularly shiny new pair of black shoes.
2:18: And now she's gone.
2:50: Sound check.
3:05: Dress rehearsal for the intro. I'm scheduled for a segment starting at 4:15 - four minutes on "the state of Quebec finances and the economy." A bit of a challenge when you're used to talking for three hours at a stretch.
3:35: And now we're all bored, waiting to start. I'm amusing myself by seeing how many journalists I can recognise - all the political types have moved across the road to the National Assembly.
3:55: The ministry officials are itching to get out of here as well; they've been putting in lots of overtime over the past few weeks. But as one said to me, "It's hard to leave when your boss is still here."
4:00: Bored, bored, bored...
4:13: Show time!
4:21: First segment done.
4:30: Second segment done. Am congratulating myself for limiting myself to only a couple of sentences at a time.
4:38: Third and last segment done.
4:55: Bored, bored, bored...
4:58: Yikes! Was just asked to give a mark out of 10 - I gave it a 7. I like the PST increase.
5:00: Done!
Post mortem: One thing that we never got around to mentioning - although we should have - is that since the Quebec govt had already started an important infrastructure program a couple of years ago, there wasn't much point in trying to add more in the name of stimulus. Those projects are already up and running, and the money is being spent.
My generally favourable impression was based on the fact that it didn't do anything obviously stupid - like trying to fight the deficit in this fiscal year - and that it incorporated an announced future increase in the PST.
I just caught the end of it. So they announced they will increase the PST (provincial sales tax) by 1% January 2011. Your doing, Stephen? I would have thought January 2010 would be better. We want the spending now, rather than 2010.
Posted by: Nick Rowe | March 19, 2009 at 05:02 PM
Not my doing, but I was *very* pleased. But yes, I would have preferred it to start in 2010.
Posted by: Stephen Gordon | March 19, 2009 at 06:53 PM
7/10? Gotta work on your grade inflation.
When is the PST going to be harmonized with the federal GST? Should be a piece of cake with all those sharp Laval grads in Finance.
Posted by: westslope | March 19, 2009 at 07:23 PM
Quebec harmonised its PST with the federal GST many, many years ago. Almost from the beginning, IIRC.
Posted by: Stephen Gordon | March 19, 2009 at 08:42 PM
Here's a question: sorry if it's uninformed.
Wells is complaining about no increase in tuition fees (at least that's how I read his post on this budget). So my question is about a) where one might find information about a) how student debt levels in Quebec compare to elsewhere in Canada (or other relevant jurisdictions); b) where one might find research on what could be considered a 'just' level of university student debt (if there is such a thing).
Thanks for any information you could provide.
Posted by: Stephen | March 20, 2009 at 01:01 AM
One good place to start might be here
Posted by: Stephen Gordon | March 20, 2009 at 06:20 AM
Thank you. If Quebec provincial sales tax is a value-added tax why is referred to as a PST and not a provincial GST?
Posted by: westslope | March 22, 2009 at 12:13 PM
Thank you. If the Quebec provincial sales tax is a value-added tax why is it referred to as a PST and not a provincial GST?
(with missing words added.... more coffee)
Posted by: westslope | March 22, 2009 at 12:17 PM