Quebec agrees in principle with a single tax return, administered by the province

Quebec is ready to collect provincial and federal taxes, which would permit citizens to file a single tax return instead of two, Premier Philippe Couillard said Monday.

Couillard was responding to a resolution favourable to the change that was passed over the weekend at a Conservative party meeting in Quebec.

“To simplify the lives of citizens, we would agree with that,” Couillard said. “There is no reason we wouldn’t be able to do it.”

The Quebec premier, however, maintained his revenue service would collect federal taxes on two conditions: the entire process would be run by the province and Quebec would maintain its current fiscal privileges.

“We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where Quebec would be tied to choices made by the federal government or dependent on (Ottawa) to decide its fiscal issues,” he said.

Last weekend’s party meeting in Quebec was part of the Tories’ drive to pick up more seats in the province and to seduce Quebecers disaffected with the federal Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois.

The resolution to combine federal and provincial tax returns into a single form collected and administered by Quebec was supported by 89 per cent of delegates and could become part of the Tory platform for the 2019 election.