Three of the four main parties were represented in the CJAD 800 studios Friday morning for the first major issues debate of the election campaign.
The Liberals, the CAQ and Québec Solidaire sent their would-be finance ministers to meet with Leslie Roberts to discuss the economy and taxes — incumbent finance minister Carlos Leitao, the CAQ's Eric Girard and Québec Solidaire's Simon Tremblay-Pépin.
The Parti Québécois did not respond to CJAD 800's invitation.
Carlos Leitao province's finances were a mess when the Liberals took over in 2014, and he took credit for changing that.
"The Quebec economy is in very good shape," Leitao said. "We've accomplished a significant feat over the last few years. We now have the lowest rate of unemployment that we've had in almost a generation. And especially, we have great business confidence and consumer confidence. That leads to increased spending, increased economic activity, and then from that, we have increased government revenues, and the financial position that allows us now to invest in the public services that we all want — health, education, family, justice, et cetera."
The CAQ's Eric Girard, meantime, says Quebec should be putting more money in people's pockets.
"What we want is for Quebec to lead the Canadian economy," Girard said, "and to do this, we have to catch up in terms of GDP per capita and disposable income per capital, wehere we've been lagging for a long time. And how are we going to do this? We're going to do this by stimulating business investment and private investment and increasing the graduation rate right here in Quebec. Education is very important to achieve what we want to achieve."