The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) welcomes the first budget of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) with a focus on aspects that pertain to the chemistry industry.

Although the budget has a priority focus on putting money back into Quebeckers’ pockets and improving health and education services, it does present some great opportunities pertaining to investment, economic development and the fight against climate change for the chemistry industry in Quebec. The government has announced that its goal is to reduce and eliminate the economic gap with our partners and neighbours and increase wealth. In order to do this, it will have to improve the announced economic outlook of 1.3 per cent growth per year over the next few years. Thus, the government’s objective is to stimulate private investment, increase the availability of labour, and support regional economic development.

Based on our members’ needs for maintaining the competitiveness of our sector in Quebec, CIAC has pressed for investment supports and measures to support the fight against climate change.

The new Quebec budget presents opportunities for CIAC’s members in in the following areas:

• An enhancement in capital cost allowances in order to reduce the cost of investments through tax relief of $1.6 billion over five years;
• An additional amount of $1 billion allocated to Investissement Québec to support business development;
• Mechanisms to help enhance research and development activities;
• An increase in the tax holiday for investments and the reduction in project qualification (from $75 million to $50 million);
• An amount of $585 million to support companies in their energy transition and for enhancing programs for companies adapting to climate change;
• Many measures for reducing approval times and a willingness to provide better support to companies;
• Enhanced support towards reducing GHGs among large industrial companies.

Various areas remain to be developed with respect to climate change, but the measures presented by the Government of Quebec are designed to facilitate the partnership between our association and the government.