Oct 5, 2026
Quebecers head to the polls today with one issue guiding where they place their x on their ballot: the cost of living.
It has been a top concern throughout the campaign, and the numbers show why. Consumer prices in Quebec rose 3.1% in the 12 months to August, slightly above the 3.0% national rate, according to data from Statistics Canada. Across Canada, grocery prices are up 29% since August 2021.
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Every major party has answered the call for help with some form of relief. But those pledges sit inside a provincial budget of $171 billion for the 2026-27 fiscal year. How each party plans to pay for its promises — and whose relief gets priority over others — could matter as much to your household as the promises themselves.
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What are the parties actually offering?
Most of the relief is targeted rather than sweeping. Cost-of-living highlights include:
- Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ): a $1,000 deposit into the registered education savings plan (RESP) of every child born in Quebec starting in fall 2027, but no tax cuts until the budget is balanced
- Parti Québécois (PQ): halve the Quebec Sales Tax (QST) on petrol for at least a year, remove QST from used goods and vehicles and send a $125 gas rebate to Quebecers earning under $40,000
- Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ): reimburse 36% of the QST paid on a new home or condominium, up to $10,000, for properties valued at up to $500,000
- Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ): abolish the carbon tax, suspend the provincial fuel tax and scrap QST on used goods
- Québec solidaire (QS): increase minimum wage to $20 an hour
Voters seem to prefer these pocketbook pledges. In a survey by Léger, 77% of Quebecers rated eliminating QST on used goods a good measure, the top promise tested.
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Why could one party’s relief be another’s clawback?
Not every promise adds money to your pocket. On July 15, Premier Christine Fréchette’s CAQ government permanently removed the QST from a list of household items including pre-cut fruit and vegetables, salted nuts, individually sold baked goods, toilet paper and tissues. Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard estimated the change would save an average family of four about $50 a year.
The Liberals and the PQ, in contrast, would both bring that tax back. The Liberals would also end the welcome tax refund, recouping $980 million over five years from the two changes combined.
So the real question isn’t who’s offering the most to Quebec residents. It’s which measures match how you spend. For a regular commuter, a lower tax on gas would likely outweigh tax-free muffins. For a buyer of a new-build condo, a rebate of up to $10,000 would dwarf both.
Can Quebec afford what’s being promised?
A CBC News analysis of the five main parties’ financial frameworks found a crowded middle.
The CAQ and Liberals propose relatively modest spending increases, while the PQ calls its plan net-neutral. QS sits at one end, with major new spending funded by higher taxes, including a tax on fortunes over $25 million. The Conservatives sit at the other end, proposing deep spending cuts to fund major tax cuts.
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All five parties project a balanced budget by 2029-30, as provincial law requires. But the economic assumptions behind those projections are far from certain, Philippe Goulet Coulombe, an associate professor at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), told CBC News. “All the parties have their own specific uncertainties,” he said.
The PQ, CAQ and Liberals each count on more than $4 billion in additional federal transfers that aren’t guaranteed to fund their plans. QS projects its wealth tax would raise $5 billion, a figure Goulet Coulombe called risky because asset values fluctuate. And the PQ’s plan to balance the books a year early is predicated on finding more than $6 billion in bureaucratic savings.
Any changes that come as a result of today’s election won’t hit Quebec households overnight. In some cases, when revenue falls short, governments delay promises, scale them back or lean on fees — so the relief you vote for may arrive later, or smaller, than advertised.
What to do now
Whatever tonight’s result, a few moves can protect your bank account:
- Match promises to your spending — note the costs that hit you hardest, such as gas, used purchases, a home purchase or kids, and track the measures that touch them
- Don’t budget around relief that isn’t law yet — pledges need approval, budget and legislation, and some, like the CAQ’s RESP deposit, wouldn’t start until fall 2027
- Watch the new government’s first budget or fiscal update — that’s when you’ll learn which promises survive and when they take effect
- Don’t wait to make a necessary purchase on a hunch — holding off on a used car in hopes of a QST exemption is a gamble with no confirmed start date
- Use the relief already available — RESP contributions already earn the federal Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) of 20% on the first $2,500 a year, or up to $500, plus a basic 10% top-up of up to $250 through the Quebec Education Savings Incentive (QESI)
The price tags attached to party platforms run into the billions. The amounts that land in your household budget will more likely be measured in tens or hundreds of dollars. So when ballots are marked at the polls today, the more useful question may be less about which party promised the most and more about whose plan is most likely to still be standing two budgets from now.
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Leslie Kennedy served as an editor at Thomson Reuters and for Star Media Group, followed by a number of years as a writer and editor and content manager in marketing communications, before returning to her editorial roots. She is a graduate of Humber College’s post-graduate journalism program and has been a professional writer and editor ever since.
