Quebec Liberals look to user fees to tackle deficit

Quebecers will have to pay more for public services as the province looks for ways to reduce spending and balance its deficit budget, said Premier Jean Charest at the closing of a Liberal Party gathering over the weekend in Drummondville.

The majority of Liberal delegates in attendance voted in favour of fee hikes and new charges for public services.

They also supported motions to reinstate highway tolls, introduce a congestion charge in the Montreal region, and a new junk food tax.

Charest said he has to weigh the need to increase provincial revenues against the ability of Quebecers to pay more.

"We're going to be faced with a number of issues here where if there was an obvious answer, it wouldn't be discussed here," he said. "You and I wouldn't be talking about it if there were an obvious answer. It would be dealt with."

The Liberal government prefers to consider user fees over increasing income taxes to tackle its estimated $3.9-billion deficit.

People probably don't pay enough to use certain public services such as post-secondary education, infrastructure and public transit, Finance Minister Raymond Bachand said.

Quebecers have to ask themselves what level of service they expect from the state, and "how much are we willing to pay for that," he added.

But Quebec's subsidized daycare will not change for now, given the government "made the promise to keep it at $7, and we're going to keep it at $7," said Family Minister Tony Tomassi.