No tax on made-in-Quebec culture products, Liberals promise

Last Updated: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 | 2:48 PM ET

CBC News

Quebec Leader Jean Charest, right, had a heated discussion with voter Gérard Lecompte, left, during a campaign stop in Longueuil on Tuesday, on Montreal's South Shore. (Peter McCabe/Canadian Press)

A Liberal government in Quebec would strike the 7.5 per cent provincial sales tax on Québécois culture products and events, leader Jean Charest said Tuesday.

Products such as movie tickets, live shows, museum memberships, CDs and DVDs would be exempt from the provincial tax as a way to support Quebec's vibrant cultural industry, and give consumers a small break, Charest said while campaigning in Montreal.

"We want to send a very important signal that supports the industry, on the one hand, and supports families, and individuals who want to be able to use these products, and ask nothing more than some encouragement to do so," he told supporters gathered at a campaign event in Longueuil, on Montreal's South Shore.

The pledge would cost the province about $50 million in annual tax revenues.

Civil servants would determine what constitutes a "Quebec cultural product," Charest said.

A Céline Dion CD recorded in the U.S. would probably qualify, but a Hollywood movie dubbed in French may not.

Cultural funding was a seminal issue for Quebec voters in the recent federal election.

The Conservative government's cuts to cultural program funding sparked widespread protest among Quebec's influential artists and cultural producers, who called the move an attack on Québécois culture.

Public outcry over the cuts is widely considered to have turned Quebec voters away from the federal Conservative party.

The election is being held on Dec. 8.