Bouchard says work more but there’s no incentive

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney doesn’t. Neither does former premier Daniel Johnson. They respectfully keep their views to themselves, or speak to Stephen Harper and Jean Charest privately. The same cannot be said about Bernard Landry, Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard. These three former Parti Québécois premiers have never met a mike they didn’t like. Indeed, they are always popping off in public.

Last week, it was Bouchard’s turn. He chastised Quebecers for their poor work ethic. He compared Quebec’s 1,670-hour average annual work schedule to Ontario’s 1,739 hours and the United States’ 1,867 hours. In Texas, the average is 1,934 hours. The main reasons for this discrepancy: workers who loathe to put in overtime, way too early retirement, an ever-increasing older population who live longer, frozen university fees, a province that offers Cadillac social services, the highest taxes in North America and a debt load of $118 billion.

Bouchard claims that Quebecers have no common vision, no dream and no cohesive plan for the future. He calls this a “poisoned inheritance.� What he is saying is that we are living in a time bomb waiting to explode. Quebec is broke — and the situation is getting worse every day.

Bouchard is right. But did he just wake up to the problem? After all, while a member of the National Assembly, he was the man responsible for amending the law to lower working hours from 44 to 40. But then, union voters were more important to him than the welfare of the province. And back when he was premier, wasn’t Quebec the most-taxed jurisdiction on the continent? Why didn’t he do something about it then? Balanced budgets became his hobbyhorse and our income-tax rates remained sky high. As premier, he could have raised university fees, but the PQ desperately needed the student vote. Getting re-elected was more important.

When Bouchard and the other PQ premiers were in office, they had a unique chance to put forward solutions to Quebec’s future economic problems. But they didn’t, failing us all. Now Bouchard and his cronies are urging Quebec to, among other things, maintain the high tax rate, cut social services, increase electricity rates so Hydro-Quebec can give even more money to the province, and introduce user fees in the health-care field.

But the graying of Quebec will come to roost. In 25 years hence, our senior population will double. This means fewer workers will be paying into the provincial pot, while more will be collecting. Like Bouchard, we can all see disaster looming. The former premier’s solution is that we should work more. But where is the incentive in that? The wife of a man I know earns $180 gross a pay more than her husband. Yet, her net pay is only $33 more than his.

So where’s the incentive to work more? Helping the state is one thing. Getting shafted by the state’s elevated tax rate is another.