Get ready for some serious changes in the way Quebec delivers services and pays for them, says Premier Jean Charest. Under his leadership, Quebecers are going to lose the distinction of being the highest taxed people in North American, Charest told 200 lawyers at a luncheon yesterday.
And massive government intervention in the economy to the tune of $4 billion a year in government subsidies and tax credits is also going to be a thing of the past, he told the annual meeting of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association at the Palais des congrès.
Leaner government will be achieved through attrition - more than 40 per cent of Quebec civil servants are expected to retire over the next decade.
But the premier also envisions that greater use of the Internet will keep the size of the civil service in check.
"We are going to implement in Quebec the first tangible, real e-government in North America," Charest said.
Just like business has to be competitive, Quebec's public administration has to be comparable to its neighbours, he said.
Big Government - the hallmark of the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s - has to be scaled down, Charest said.
In that context, starting this fall he will co-ordinate a thorough review in six areas:
- government structures and programs;
- state intervention in the economy
- reorganizing health and social services
- decentralization
- student-centered education
- simplification of and reducing the tax burden.
The other main goal is to be "part of the Canadian federation" - the only part of the speech that generated enthusiastic applause.
For federalism to work better the so-called fiscal imbalance has to addressed. The federal government has more resources than it needs, while the opposite is true for the provinces, he said.
Acceptance by all the provinces last month of his proposal for a Council of the Federation to co-ordinate provincial action in relations with Ottawa will allow Quebec to build alliances as it pushes for change in such areas as the fiscal imbalance, Charest said.
Quelle: Montreal Gazette
