Balancing the budget is at the heart of governmental discourse, but it’s only a pretense that has nothing to do with most initiatives implemented for its sake. The true aim is not to save money, but to pursue the state’s transformation initiated under Jean Charest, i.e. managing public services like…
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Last month, on April 8, the government proudly announced its new revamped Plan Nord. Premier Philippe Couillard’s project, though much less ambitious than that of Charest’s government, appears to be just as risky. The government is intent on investing 2 billion dollars to build infrastructure in the North in order…
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Two weeks ago, Quebec’s Finance Minister was very proud to announce that Quebec had eradicated its deficit. Obviously, he refrained from going over the list of all the cuts, decreased services, and job losses that were required to reach this fiscal Holy Grail. The absurdity of putting away, year after…
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Selon Philippe Couillard, l’austérité ne serait rien d’autre « qu’une vue de l’esprit ». Or, comme l’a si bien dit Philip K. Dick, célèbre auteur américain de romans de science-fiction, « la réalité, c’est ce qui continue d’exister lorsque l’on cesse d’y croire ». Dans la même veine, que l’on « croit » ou…
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The last elections have ushered in a fresh input of creativity and imagination in Quebec’s political life. Not content with exaggerating the budget deficit by cooking the books, Couillard’s government invented a so-called “structural deficit” between the state’s expenditures and revenues. The logic is quite simple: spending growth is greater…
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Exiting the crisis comes with a cost. For women in Quebec, the price tag has nearly reached $7 billion since 2008. And that’s just part of the story…let’s start with the beginning. In 2008, the province of Quebec, like most Western states, was hit by an economic crisis that many…
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Is 50% of Quebec spending is directed towards healthcare? It’s true, if you turn a blind eye to just how that number was calculated. Were we to be a bit more nuanced and honest regarding “healthcare costs”, we would come to a figure between 33% and 34%. We would realize that…
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How much money do you currently have in your bank account? Enough to hold out for a week? a month? six months? How would you like to have $111 billion set aside? To give you a better sense of just how much that is, it’s almost a third of Quebec’s…
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Municipal taxes. Their mere mention is enough to cause headaches for some. Throughout the year, we nearly forget that we help finance our own town or city. Then the tax bill pops up in our mailbox, and we open it with trembling hands, wondering about the magnitude of this year’s…
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Rigorous analysis: so overrated! Late in November, former Liberal cabinet minister Lucienne Robillard unveiled the first set of recommendations by her advisory group tasked with reviewing Quebec government spending. Indeed, in June, the Couillard government mandated the committee to find potential avenues to reach a targeted $3.2G in savings in…
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