Quebec premier, opposition in budget crisis talks
MONTREAL, May 31 (Reuters) - Quebec Premier Jean Charest convened a meeting with the Canadian province's two main opposition parties on Thursday, aiming to resolve a budget vote crisis and avoid a July election.
Charest, head of a Liberal minority government elected March 26, has to muster support from either the Action democratique du Quebec (ADQ) or Parti Quebecois (PQ) for a vote on the budget scheduled for midday Friday.
Failure to garner a majority of votes in support of the May 24 budget would bring down the government just over two months after it was elected. Voters in the mainly French-speaking province of 7.5 million would have to head back to the polls, most likely on July 9.
The ADQ, which forms the official opposition, has said it will vote against the budget, and it was not clear who would represent it at Charest's meeting.
Rather than attend the late Thursday afternoon meeting with Charest in the provincial capital, Quebec City, ADQ officials said their leader Mario Dumont was heading to Montreal for a financing cocktail party with prospective party candidates.
Francois Gendron, interim leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois, which finished third in the election, and his finance critic Francois Legault, were scheduled to attend the meeting with Charest.
After the meeting, the Liberals and PQ were scheduled to gather separately with their respective party members on Thursday evening to discuss strategy.
The Charest government and his finance minister, Monique Jerome-Forget, are defending their election campaign promise to cut personal taxes by $950 million ($888 million).
The ADQ says a windfall transfer of cash from the federal government that would be used to fund the tax cut should be applied against Quebec's C$122 billion of debt.
The PQ is demanding that at least C$300 million of the money slated for the tax cut be put into Quebec's health and education budgets.
The Charest government was offering to put an extra C$60 million into certain health and student aid services.
($1=$1.07 Canadian)
