With less than three weeks until Quebec voters head to the polls on October 5, all four major parties fanned out across the province on Saturday to deliver a flurry of campaign pledges, spanning public safety, health care, transit and education. The Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec led the day’s headlines with a promise to hire 300 new police officers and 50 Crown prosecutors, while rival parties staked out competing visions for the health-care system and public services.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
CAQ leader Christine Fr\u00e9chette made her announcement at the Quebec police academy in Nicolet, committing $196 million<\/strong> to expand both the S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec and municipal police forces. She framed the pledge squarely around the evolution of criminal activity in the province. “In recent years, crime has changed in Quebec,” Fr\u00e9chette said. “Now, criminals are recruiting our young people online. Harassment, fraud, and extortion are now happening online. Armed violence is a growing concern for citizens.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Beyond the officer and prosecutor numbers, the CAQ would spend $13 million<\/strong> to deploy joint teams pairing a police officer with a mental health professional in regional communities \u2014 a model that acknowledges the limits of purely law-enforcement responses to complex social problems. Two technological expertise centres, one in Montreal and one in Quebec City, would be established at a cost of $14 million<\/strong> to coordinate intelligence across police forces on fraud, online recruitment of minors, youth radicalization and illicit trafficking.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n On health care, both the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois and the Quebec Liberal Party presented reform visions that share a common thread: shifting the system’s centre of gravity away from hospitals and toward prevention and primary care. PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, speaking in eastern Montreal, promised to invest $150 million over four years<\/strong> in CLSCs, positioning them as the primary gateway to care. His party would also increase the public health prevention budget by $550 million over four years<\/strong>, with measures targeting physical activity, mental health and the over-prescription of medications. St-Pierre Plamondon also called for expanding medical school cohorts and establishing programs at regional universities to address persistent shortages of health professionals outside major urban centres.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Liberals took a complementary but distinct angle. Speaking in Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Liberal spokesperson Charles Milliard announced that a PLQ government would gradually raise the share of health spending devoted to prevention, reaching 5 per cent by the end of the next decade<\/strong>. The funds would support cancer screening programs, chronic disease prevention and vaccination drives. The party also proposed a personalized Quebec Prevention Pathway<\/strong> for eligible residents, delivering tailored invitations to screening and preventive interventions based on age, sex and individual risk factors.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Qu\u00e9bec Solidaire moved on transit. Spokesperson Ruba Ghazal announced in Montreal that a QS government would make public transit free for riders under 25 and those 65 and older<\/strong>, while offering a 20 per cent tax credit to all other users. The party estimates the combined cost of free fares and the tax credit at $270 million annually, with an additional $230 million earmarked for maintaining and improving services \u2014 a total commitment of $500 million per year<\/strong>. Ghazal argued the measure would save a Montreal family with two teenagers up to $2,100 annually<\/strong>, and a single adult up to $792<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “We don’t want cities to bear the burden of expanding public transit and meeting the population’s needs \u2014 the Quebec government must step up,” Ghazal said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Quebec Conservative Party turned its attention to education, with leader \u00c9ric Duhaime promising to dramatically restructure the French-language school system. The PCQ would reduce the number of school service centres from the current 61 to just 17<\/strong>, refocusing their mandate on support and coordination rather than administration. Schools would receive direct funding and gain greater authority over program offerings, staffing and transportation. The party also proposed ending residential proximity as the primary criterion for school enrollment, allowing families to choose a school in a neighbouring area if it better fits their child’s needs. The reforms would begin as pilot projects in targeted regions before broader implementation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The breadth of Saturday’s announcements reflects the compressed urgency of a campaign entering its final stretch, with each party working to consolidate support across a province where health care, public safety and the cost of living remain top concerns for voters.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With less than three weeks until Quebec voters head to the polls on October 5, all four major parties fanned out across the province on Saturday to deliver a flurry of campaign pledges, spanning public safety, health care, transit and education. The Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec led the day’s headlines with a promise to hire 300 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n