Published September 18, 2026 · Équipe Le Québec Vote
Over two evenings, Quebec’s five main parties sharpened their differences on affordability, health care, housing, transportation, education and Quebec’s constitutional future. The debates also left several precise questions unanswered. This analysis does not name a winner or loser. It separates proposals, incomplete answers and claims that must still be checked against public data.
## At a glance
- **Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ):** continuity in public services, major energy projects, school choice and a privately delivered third-link highway project. Christine Fréchette did not quantify the jobs threatened by U.S. tariffs and did not confirm that construction on the third link would begin during the next term.
- **Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ):** housing, public telehealth, prevention and French-language training, without an immediate general tax cut. Charles Milliard made future use of the notwithstanding clause conditional on consultation.
- **Parti Québécois (PQ):** lower business taxation, no sales tax on used goods, more home care, abolition of Santé Québec and a referendum. In Noovo’s official excerpt, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon did not answer directly whether an independent Quebec would interrupt electricity exports to the United States.
- **Québec solidaire (QS):** social housing, tighter rent rules, public transit, a wealth tax and reform of Quebec’s three-tier school system. Several investments depend on projected new tax revenue that still requires full documentation.
- **Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ):** deep spending cuts, tax relief, suspension of provincial gasoline levies, a larger role for private health delivery and natural-gas development. Éric Duhaime repeated the $47-billion figure announced in August, but the PCQ’s final fiscal framework books $36.518 billion in net spending reductions over five years.
## What each party emphasized
### Coalition avenir Québec
The CAQ defended continuity and stability during a trade conflict. Premier and CAQ leader Christine Fréchette highlighted economic diversification, a major expansion of electricity generation, the 3% cap applied to some Hydro-Québec rate increases and her party’s childcare commitments.
On health care, Fréchette said the number of people waiting more than a year for surgery had fallen from roughly 20,000 to 3,800. The Health Ministry dashboard confirms a sharp decline from the pandemic peak but showed **4,015 people as of August 22, 2026**. She also said 650,000 people had been assigned a family doctor. The government publications located instead document **more than 500,000 new patients taken on by a family doctor or family-medicine group**; they do not confirm 650,000 individual doctor assignments.
At Noovo, it was Christine Fréchette—not the PLQ—who alleged a $9.1-billion hole in the PQ framework. She cited a $2.1-billion gap to close, $3 billion in reduced contingencies and $4.4 billion in anticipated federal transfers. Those figures add to **$9.5 billion**, not $9.1 billion. More fundamentally, combining a contingency choice, a budget gap and a revenue assumption does not by itself establish an accounting “hole”; the number should remain attributed as a CAQ attack.
The CAQ maintained its proposed eastern third link in Quebec City and raised private-sector delivery. Fréchette nevertheless did not answer yes or no when asked whether construction would start during the next term.
On education, she defended parental choice between public and private schools and announced investments in gyms and schoolyards. On language, the CAQ proposed extending Bill 101 to vocational and adult education and renewing the notwithstanding clause.
### Quebec Liberal Party
The PLQ made housing its central economic and social lever, with a target of 100,000 new homes a year and a social or affordable component. A dispute with QS over the financing of the parties’ respective plans remained unresolved.
Charles Milliard also defended public telehealth, prevention spending equal to 5% of the health budget and more home care. On homelessness, he proposed $60 million a year without endorsing a dedicated super-minister.
For French-language training, the PLQ proposed $400 million and said it would reduce the stated wait from 18 to six weeks. On the notwithstanding clause, Milliard did not take an automatic position: he said consultation should precede a decision. Any comparison card should retain that qualification.
The party did not promise an immediate general tax cut, citing the state of public finances.
### Parti Québécois
The PQ proposed a 20% reduction in the tax burden on businesses, less regulation and removal of the Quebec sales tax from used goods. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said he would like to raise the basic personal amount but that his fiscal framework did not allow it immediately.
In health care, the party would abolish Santé Québec and raise home-care funding by 50%. It promoted a $95 monthly public-transit pass and an expansion of the public childcare network.
Sovereignty and a referendum took up substantial time in both debates. In Noovo’s official excerpt, when asked whether an independent Quebec might halt electricity exports to the United States, the PQ leader shifted toward the credibility of his team and economic plan. The exchange therefore cannot be converted into a firm policy on power exports.
The PQ cited targets of 35,000 permanent residents and 250,000 temporary immigrants. Before entering a comparator, those figures require a target year and a precise definition of the population being counted.
### Québec solidaire
QS focused on public services, housing and transit. Ruba Ghazal reiterated a target of 50,000 social-housing units—25,000 acquisitions and 25,000 new builds—at a stated cost of $11.8 billion. She also proposed temporarily limiting rent increases to inflation, capped at 3%, before adopting a new formula.
The party defended $23 billion in public-transit investment, free fares for people 65 and older and those under 25, and a second tramway phase. On education, QS wants to end public subsidies for private schools and broaden access to special programs in the public system.
The party proposes a tax on wealth above $25 million, projected to raise $5 billion. That estimate should be presented as a campaign projection with its methodology, not as guaranteed revenue.
QS also proposed 15 public grocery stores and said some families could save $2,500 a year. That figure is the bottom of a range modelled for a Canada-wide network of 50 stores and six distribution hubs. The study itself stresses that scale is essential, so it does not validate a guaranteed $2,500 saving under QS’s smaller plan.
### Conservative Party of Quebec
The PCQ presented the sharpest fiscal contrast. Éric Duhaime repeated the $47-billion savings figure announced before publication of the party’s fiscal framework. The final document instead books **$36.518 billion** in net spending reductions over five years after new commitments and overlap with the government efficiency initiative. The party also proposes a gradual rise in the basic personal amount and suspension of provincial gasoline levies. It associates its tax package with $11,166 in savings for an average household, using its own assumptions.
The party wants more private delivery within publicly funded health coverage. It cited private eye clinics as an efficiency example. The productivity and cost ratios mentioned in the debate need a like-for-like comparison before being repeated as facts.
On energy and climate, the PCQ supports Quebec natural-gas development and ending carbon pricing. Duhaime said $13 billion had been spent “with no result.” Available data do not support that wording: cumulative auction revenue was **$10.97 billion** through 2025, while Quebec’s inventory records lower emissions than in 1990. This does not prove every carbon-market dollar was effective or that Quebec will meet its 2030 target, but it rules out the absolute claim of “no result.”
The PCQ also proposed $100 a week for parents without a public childcare space, along with a tax credit for private childcare.
## Answers that remained incomplete
| Debate | Party | Question | What the exchange supports |
|---|---|---|---|
| TVA | CAQ | How many Quebec jobs are threatened by U.S. tariffs? | Fréchette named vulnerable sectors but declined to provide a number, citing uncertainty about the conflict’s duration. |
| TVA | CAQ | Would construction on the third link begin during the term? | No direct yes-or-no answer. The project and route were defended. |
| TVA | PLQ | Would the party renounce the notwithstanding clause? | Conditional answer: consultation first, decision afterward. It was not an absolute yes or no. |
| Noovo | PQ | Would an independent Quebec stop electricity exports to the United States? | In the accessible official excerpt, the leader discussed economic credibility without directly resolving the question. |
| TVA | PLQ and QS | How would their respective housing promises be financed? | Each challenged the other’s figures; the format did not reconcile the fiscal frameworks. |
An incomplete answer does not mean a party has no position. It means the precise question did not receive a usable answer in the exchange reviewed.
## Results of the eight claim checks
| Claim heard | Verdict | Publishable wording |
|---|---|---|
| The PCQ would save $47 billion in five years. | **Outdated or misleading as a current total.** | “The PCQ initially announced $47 billion; its final framework books $36.518 billion in net spending reductions.” |
| The size of government grew by 24% under the CAQ. | **Partly confirmed but misleading.** | Provincial full-time-equivalent staffing grew 22.3% from 2018–19 to 2024–25. Statistics Canada’s 24.1% covers the entire public sector in Quebec, including other levels of government, and is not a measure of bureaucracy alone. |
| The one-year-plus wait list fell from 20,000 to 3,800 patients. | **Trend confirmed; current value inaccurate.** | “The one-year-plus surgical wait list fell sharply from the pandemic peak; the ministry showed 4,015 people on August 22, 2026.” |
| 650,000 people received a family-doctor assignment. | **Unconfirmed and misleadingly worded.** | “More than 500,000 people were newly taken on by a family doctor or family-medicine group; 650,000 individual assignments are not documented.” |
| The PQ fiscal framework has a $9.1-billion hole. | **Internally inconsistent political calculation.** | “The CAQ alleged a hole; the cited components add to $9.5 billion and are not all accounting shortfalls.” |
| $13 billion was spent on carbon pricing “with no result.” | **Unsupported and false in absolute form.** | “The market generated $10.97 billion in cumulative revenue through 2025; emissions declined, though the market’s isolated effect is not established here.” |
| Public grocery stores would save $2,500 a year. | **Unsupported extrapolation for the QS plan.** | “A study estimates at least $2,500 for a Canada-wide 50-store network; it does not validate that result for 15 Quebec stores.” |
| 70% of Quebecers do not want a referendum. | **Not confirmed as worded.** | Located polls mostly measure a sovereignty vote—about 65% No in April and as high as 69–71% in other measures—not necessarily support for holding a referendum. |
## What the second debate added
Noovo used 20 short head-to-head exchanges organized under five themes: affordability; economy and infrastructure; youth; health and homelessness; and French, immigration and sovereignty. The format made disagreement more visible but often limited follow-up and real-time validation.
Compared with TVA, it sharpened four divides: whether a referendum belongs in the next mandate; whether to abolish or retain Santé Québec; a third highway link versus transit investment; and whether to preserve or transform the public-private school structure. It yielded few entirely new, fully costed promises. Its main contribution was forcing leaders to confront rivals’ proposals directly.
## What remained largely absent
Across more than three and a half hours, several issues received little substantive attention: justice and public safety; people with disabilities; Indigenous priorities beyond the referendum and selected energy projects; regional labour shortages; municipal finance; costed climate adaptation; and detailed governance of artificial intelligence.
These omissions must not be presented as proof that a party lacks a position. They describe only the limits of the two broadcasts.
## Watch the debates
- [TVA’s Face-à-Face (September 15, 2026) — full broadcast on CPAC](https://www.cpac.ca/cpac-special/episode/tvas-face-a-face-quebec-leaders-debate?id=9b790761-b3f7-47a3-b77a-6fb686faae97)
- [Noovo–Crave’s Le grand débat des chefs (September 16, 2026) — official Crave page](https://www.crave.ca/fr/series/le-grand-debat-des-chefs-noovo-crave-62061)
- [Official highlights of the Noovo–Crave debate (video)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4k38530qYw)
## Conclusion
The debates clarified real choices: rapid state retrenchment or continuity in public services; more private delivery or a stronger public system; highway megaprojects or transit priority; federalism, autonomist continuity, a constituent process or a sovereignty referendum.
They did not replace platforms or fiscal frameworks. For a political comparator, the sound rule is straightforward: enter explicit commitments with a source and date; retain qualifications when an answer is conditional; and label unverified numbers separately. A debate pivot is not proof of no position, just as a number spoken on television is not automatically an established fact.
## Method
The full captioned CPAC version of TVA’s Face-à-Face was used for the first debate. For Noovo–Crave, the analysis relies on the five official thematic blocks, accessible official video excerpts and contemporaneous reports. Noovo timestamps in the research notes refer to the official highlight edit, not the full broadcast. The sources consulted are listed at the bottom of this page.
## Limits of this analysis
- The full Noovo–Crave broadcast is offered in a streaming environment that does not provide the same direct access to a complete transcript as CPAC does. Statements attributed to that debate are therefore limited to the accessible official excerpts and the published editorial blocks.
- The eight claims were checked against the publicly available sources. Two remain **unconfirmed after research** in their precise wording: the 650,000 individual family-doctor assignments and the 70% opposed to holding a referendum. “Unconfirmed” does not mean “confirmed absent.”
- This analysis does not replace a reading of the parties’ full platforms and fiscal frameworks.
- The omissions listed describe the content of the broadcasts, not the parties’ full public positions.