QUEBEC - Liberal Premier Jean Charest is pushing ahead with a tax cut for Quebec's burdened middle class, saying they deserve a break even though his minority government may not be able to deliver it.
"You already work hard for every dollar that you earn,'' Charest said Wednesday in his inaugural address in the national assembly to mark a new legislative session.
"You have the right, you the Quebec taxpayers, to some respite. I am asking the opposition, just like us, to take the side of the middle class and to allow the tax cuts -- finally -- for the middle class.''
Charest promised almost $1 billion in tax cuts -- $250 million in his February budget and another $700 million in the March election campaign.
His government was re-elected on March 26 with only 48 seats out of 125. The Action democratique du Quebec won 41 and the Parti Quebecois 36.
ADQ Leader Mario Dumont has been lukewarm to the proposed tax cuts and has threatened not to support the proposal. He said after Charest's speech he'd like to see the new budget, expected later this month, before he makes up his mind.
But Dumont added his party is still categorically opposed to any plan to take the $700 million Quebec received from Ottawa during the campaign and have it all used on tax cuts.
Charest said in his speech he has taken Quebecers' message to heart when they gave him a minority government and that he was speaking directly to them.
He said his minority Liberal government has several priorities it wants to achieve by next December.
A main priority is gun-control legislation to restrict semi-automatic weapons. The law will be named after student Anastasia De Sousa, who was killed by a gunman in last fall's shooting rampage at Montreal's Dawson College.
Charest called it his "darkest day'' as premier. He acknowledged the presence of her parents in the national assembly.
The others priorities include: a plan to eliminate junk food in the province's schools, improved report cards, private clinics within the public health-care system, unfreezing tuition fees and increasing loans and grants for post-secondary students.
Charest, whose cabinet has 18 members with an equal number of men and women, said he wants women to break the "glass ceiling.''
"I want it to be clear for my daughters and for your daughters that there are no summits beyond your reach.''
The premier also touched on the debate in Quebec on so-called reasonable accommodation for immigrants, noting the new arrivals are most welcome in the province but that integration is necessary.
"Our fundamental values are not negotiable,'' Charest said.
