Éric Duhaime promises to abolish the sales tax on used goods

The Conservative Party of Quebec is committed to eliminating the sales tax on used goods, including automobiles, which constitute by far the largest source of tax revenue on used goods.

The Conservative leader, Éric Duhaime, was also at a car dealership in Donnacona, near Quebec City, on Friday, to make his announcement.

However, he specified that he intended to abolish the tax on all used goods, including furniture, appliances, antiques, clothing and so on.

“Why can the government collect two, three, four, five times taxes on a car or on a used good? he wondered in front of an audience of sympathizers.

A regressive tax

Mr. Duhaime argued that this taxation is regressive by definition, because it affects the less well off more.

“People who buy used appliances or used clothes or used cars, they are not necessarily the most affluent people. »

“These people, we make them pay taxes when it’s not necessarily the people who have the highest incomes, on the contrary. Most people buy used goods normally because they can’t afford goods in new condition. We do not understand why the government wants to go after this clientele. »

This tax is also unfair, he adds, since those who sell used goods on the Web, for example, escape the tax, while businesses such as thrift stores or others do not.

An ecological measure

The Conservative leader even makes it an eco-friendly gesture, arguing that reusing goods is far better for the environment than throwing them away and buying new.

“Reuse a good, it has something very positive. We often talk about recycling, but reuse is also important, and encouraging reuse rather than throwing them away and buying new ones all the time is something that is extraordinarily positive for the planet,” he said. he advanced.

According to the Conservatives, this measure would result in a loss of revenue of approximately $350 million for the state, but Éric Duhaime acknowledged that this figure is imprecise due to the lack of details and distinctions when a business sells to both new and used, for example.

« Accounting at the government level identifies taxes on used automobiles much more easily because the other types of goods, it’s broken down into all kinds of budget items and sometimes you don’t even know if it’s used or if it’s is in mint condition,” he explained.

In the end, according to him, this measure « is something very simple, it’s easy to administer, the government just has to get out of the way and do nothing ».

Studies on the third link, now

Éric Duhaime also launched a full-throttle charge against the chief caquist, François Legault, who opened the door to a bridge rather than a tunnel to connect Quebec to its South Shore at a press briefing on Friday. The outgoing Prime Minister’s team immediately had to correct the situation, reaffirming that the Coalition avenir Québec project was indeed a tunnel.

Mr. Legault, however, refuses to reveal the studies on his third sub-river link project, saying he wants to wait until they are updated to assess the impact of the pandemic and telework, among other things.

This argument simply does not pass according to Mr. Duhaime, who calls for the publication of these studies before October 3.

“It is not true that the people of Quebec are going to vote without knowing what Mr. Legault has in his hands. If he knows the information, he hesitates and begins to falter a little about his tunnel project, why? We have the right to know. »

« The voters paid for these studies and the minimum is to show them and allow them to read them before making an important decision on October 3, » hammered the Conservative leader, accusing François Legault of asking » a blank cheque.

“Don’t give it away! He is asking for a blank check for $6.5 billion for a project he does not want to give us the details of. »

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