Article content continued

Couillard noted that the Coalition for Quebec’s Future would also have to reject the budget for the government to go down, something that party’s leader has already threatened.

“I have not changed my mind,” said Francois Legault. “I think there are always ways to make changes, it’s possible to reduce expenses, to increase revenues. It’s been done in other countries.

“It’s not too late but the Parti Quebecois has to wake up and change direction.”

Marceau told a news conference in Quebec City the deficit should come in at $1.75-billion in 2014-15.

“I am ready to admit we had significant gaps in our forecasts,” he said.

He noted a balanced budget could have been achieved through draconian measures but that he didn’t want to go that route.

“We could have done it by cutting expenditures in a non-desirable way, in a way that could not have been appropriate, but it could have been done,” he said. Taxes could also have been jacked up.

“It’s always feasible. The question is not whether it’s feasible. The question is whether it’s desirable.”

The finance minister said he did not want to raise taxes or introduce massive spending cuts this year.

“We’re growing at a moderate rate, but we remain in a situation which is fragile at the world level,” he said. To cut spending by $2.5-billion or to increase taxes by $2.5-billion, this is the perfect recipe to put Quebec back into recession.“

The increase in the province’s revenues this year is expected to be only one-half of the projected hike.

The government and the opposition are already on a collision course over a proposed values charter that would ban the wearing of religious symbols by public service employees.

The PQ has already hinted it would make that legislation a matter of confidence.