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Longueuil – In the lead-up to the next Québec budget and as part of its 2026 Agenda campaign A strong public system: what if we dared to do it?, the APTS (Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux) has announced the campaign’s third theme this year: Tax the super-rich: what if we dared to do it? At a time when the health and social services system is chronically underfunded, the APTS emphasizes the need to set up a budgetary shield and argues that the government has plenty of fiscal leeway to fund it, provided it is willing to collect revenue from those with the greatest capacity to pay.

For years, successive governments have invoked a lack of financial resources to justify cutting public services. At the same time, wealth has become more and more concentrated in the hands of a very small minority while Quebecers’ needs have continued to increase.

“Québec is not too poor to pay for health care. It’s simply too timid to tackle this extreme concentration of wealth,” said APTS president Robert Comeau. “So a minority accumulates millions or billions of dollars, while services to Quebecers are cut. But austerity is not something we’re doomed to live with. It’s a political choice.”

In March, let’s make sure the wealthiest 1% pay their share

For the APTS, it’s not enough to say that health care and social services are a priority: we have to give ourselves the means to fund them appropriately. This is exactly what the proposal to tax the super-rich is about. Many options are available; the one put forward by the APTS is a graduated wealth tax on the richest 1% of households, meaning those whose net worth starts at $4 million. The tax would be applied as follows:

After-tax worth of targeted households	Tax rate	Additional revenue
$4 million to $25 million	0.5%	$1.5 billion
$25 million to $100 million	1%	$1.7 billion
$100 million or more	2%	$3.3 billion
Total		$6.5 billion

“These are highly targeted measures that would have no impact on the vast majority of Quebecers, including the middle class,” said APTS vice-president Émilie Charbonneau. “Setting the threshold at $4 million means that we can really make a distinction between households who are living on what they earn through their work and those whose wealth is primarily based on accumulation of assets, which has often been taking place over several generations.”

According to APTS estimates, this tax could generate additional revenue of up to $6.5 billion a year, which would be largely sufficient to pay for a budgetary shield and put an end to the cuts that are undermining the public system. “To give a sense of scale, this would enable the health care system to hire tens of thousands of professionals and technicians without costing the middle class a penny more,” said Émilie Charbonneau.

What if we dared to do it?

The APTS says it’s time to discard the false claim that austerity is inevitable. “The government has options,” said Robert Comeau. “It can choose to protect the health and well-being of Quebecers instead of putting the crushing weight of this mission on the shoulders of workers, service users, and caregivers. Taxing the super-rich isn’t a radical measure – it’s the responsible choice.”

The APTS

The APTS (Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux) represents more than 68,000 members who play a key role in ensuring that health and social services institutions run smoothly. Our members provide a wide range of services for all Quebecers, including diagnostic, rehabilitation, nutrition, psychosocial intervention, clinical support, and prevention services.