Wednesday brought gloom to Quebec as its Finance Minister Monique Jerome-Forget warned that the province will be forced to post a deficit in 2009-2010 because of the current global economic crisis.

"The budget has got to reveal the truth," she said in a news conference.

"I have no intention of playing a game here. No intention. I am going to tell the truth and the truth is that we're being affected."

The budget is expected to be listed in March. For the first time in the last decade the province is, in most probability, about to show a deficit.

Despite the global economic crisis, during the last fall's election campaign the minister had specified that there would be no budgetary deficit in either 2008-09 or 2009-10.

"In January, things changed very, very markedly," she said. "Before Christmas, the shops were full of people. If you go into shops today you'll see a big difference."

This has given the opposition finance critic an opportunity to deride the government. He said that after this the Quebecers would have lost faith in the government.