Letters to Provinces and Territories: Quebec 2021

Mr. Éric Girard
Minister of Finance
Gouvernement du Québec
390, boulevard Charest Est
Québec, QC   G1K 3H4

Dear Minister Girard:

Since the pandemic began, the federal government has invested $511.6 billion – nearly a quarter of Canada’s GDP – to support Canadians.  The federal government took on this responsibility because, when the pandemic began, there was concern about whether provinces had the fiscal space needed to support Canadians through the crisis.

The federal government invested nearly $20 billion through direct transfers like the Safe Restart Agreement, $2 billion through the Safe Return to Class Fund, and provided $4.5 billion through top-ups to the Canada Health Transfer to support health care systems and $1 billion for vaccine rollouts as part of the response to the pandemic.  The government also invested $2.2 billion to top up the Canada Community-Building Fund in 2020-21, along with other direct transfers to the provinces and territories.  Furthermore, federal income and business support measures have protected provincial and territorial revenues, with revenues higher due to federal investments to stabilize incomes, protect jobs, and prevent business closures, therefore protecting the tax base and limiting deficits and debt.

I write you today regarding Quebec’s transfer payment amounts for 2022-23.  In accordance with the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act (the Act) and relevant regulations, total major transfers to Quebec for 2022-23 will round to $27,393 million, an increase of $1,089 million from 2021-22.  The first estimates of your province’s Canada Health Transfer and Canada Social Transfer payments for 2022-23 are $10,148.5 million and $3,577.9 million respectively.  In accordance with the legislated formula under the Act and its regulations, your province’s Equalization payment for 2022-23 will be $13,666.2 million. 

Enclosed for your information is a table presenting the 2022-23 major transfer amounts for each province and territory.  The table will be provided to your officials and posted on the Department of Finance’s website in December 2021.

I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with you to serve and support Canadians.

Yours sincerely,

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P.

Major Transfer Payments for 2022-23
($ millions)
Province or Territory Equalization Territorial Formula Financing1 Canada Health Transfer Canada Social Transfer Total
2022-23
 
NL 0 0 610 215 826
PEI 503 0 196 69 768
NS 2,458 0 1,175 414 4,048
NB 2,360 0 934 329 3,624
QC 13,666 0 10,149 3,578 27,393
ON 0 0 17,532 6,181 23,713
MB 2,933 0 1,633 576 5,142
SK 0 0 1,390 490 1,880
AB 0 0 5,250 1,851 7,101
BC 0 0 6,185 2,181 8,366
NU 0 1,859 47 17 1,923
NWT 0 1,519 54 19 1,592
YK 0 1,174 51 18 1,244
TOTAL 21,920 4,553 45,208 15,938 87,619

Totals may not add due to rounding
1Includes transition payments of $1.3 million to Yukon and $1.7 million to the Northwest Territories (Budget 2018)

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