2024-2025 Expenditure Budget - Priority investments in health and social services, education and higher education

QUÉBEC CITY, March 12, 2024 /CNW/ - The Minister Responsible for Government Administration and the Chair of the Conseil du trésor, Sonia LeBel, tabled the 2024-2025 Expenditure Budget, which is set at $124.3 billion and provides for investments in priority sectors such as health and social services, as well as education and higher education.

She highlighted, "We have a duty to honour the priorities of Quebecers and invest in our two major networks to provide them with the services they expect and deserve. We are presenting an efficient and responsible expenditure management strategy that delivers on these priorities, while enabling us to meet our spending targets for this fiscal year. At the same time, we are committed to maintaining government optimization so that every dollar invested by taxpayers reaps the expected rewards." 

Modern management of our human resources

For the 2024–2025 fiscal year, the Government is focusing on workforce growth that will ensure a level of quality public services in the health care and education networks. This growth in the workforce is in line with governmental priorities and changes in the working population.

In recent months, the Government has been involved in negotiations with public and parapublic sector employees. Agreements have been reached with more than 450,000 employees, and significant progress has been made, notably in work organization to ensure greater stability within school teams and quality health care throughout the network.

The Stratégie de gestion des ressources humaines de la fonction publique 2023–2028 for its part, will enable the Government to meet the challenges of the job market. Attracting and retaining talent is at the heart of this new strategy, which focuses on innovation and the expertise of its workforce.

Government performance still at the forefront

The Government is committed to continuous improvement in the performance of its public administration, programs and, ultimately, in the quality of public services. The Stratégie en révision des programmes 2023–2027 seeks to increase the performance of the Government performance, improve the quality of services to the public and help control the growth of government program spending. 

For its part, the Tableau de bord de la performance de l'administration publique will continue to serve as a reliable reference to encourage the adoption of best practices within the government apparatus.

Public procurement: an important lever for the economy of Québec

The Stratégie gouvernementale des marchés publics, maximized by the amendments to the Act respecting contracting by public bodies, will continue to be rolled out in 2024–2025 and thus benefit Québec businesses, notably SMEs, which are major drivers of economic development. Thanks to a number of measures, procurement of Québec goods rose by $330 million in one year. The aim is to achieve an increase of $1.5 billion. 

Furthermore, in the construction sector, the Government will establish a more agile normative framework that will promote the performance of recognized clients in order to address the major challenges facing this sector, such as rising costs and completion delays. In this regard, a major milestone was reached at the beginning of 2024, with the progressive entry into force of the new regulation governing professional architectural and engineering services related to construction work.

Expenditure review

Finally, in 2024–2025, the Government will initiate a comprehensive expenditure review, to be carried out in a structured and orderly fashion. In this respect, particular attention will be paid to maintaining services to the public. The effects of the actions selected will be taken into account when preparing the 2025–2026 Expenditure Budget.

Related link

www.tresor.gouv.qc.ca/en/ 

SOURCE Cabinet de la ministre responsable de l'Administration gouvernementale et présidente du Conseil du trésor

Source: Marylène Le Houillier, Press Attaché, Office of the Minister Responsible for Government Administration and Chair of the Conseil du trésor, Tél. : [phone]; Information: Relations avec les médias, Directions des communications, Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor, Tél. : [phone], [email protected]