Report & Analysis | Quebec 2019 Budget: "Your Priorities, Your Budget"
![Report & Analysis | Quebec 2019 Budget: "Your Priorities, Your Budget"](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6481129280f1a3a841757970/64945dc53ffcb5e3d70906f2_649457543ffcb5e3d700e81a_Insights-Provincial.webp)
Quebec Finance Minister, Éric Girard, presented his first budget to the National Assembly on Thursday, March 21 since the election of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government last October.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6481129280f1a3a841757970/64945dd827d3e9f8fb9778ec_5c9548c43a35645777529bd2_Quebec%2520Minister.jpeg)
Clearly pleased with himself, he announced that the last year ended with a surplus of $5.6 billion. Once the $3.1 billion paid into the Generations Fund, Quebec closed the books in the 2018-2019 fiscal year with a surplus of $2.5 billion. The government of François Legault can say thank you to the former Liberal government of Philippe Couillard who cleaned up the public finances, as well as to the additional $1.4 billion this year from the Equalization program.
The budget plan titled Your Priorities, Your Budget, increases expenditures to meet the electoral commitments of the CAQ. For a center-right government, the budget presents measures that tend resolutely to the left, agree observers of the political scene in Quebec.