Montreal, Friday, November 21, 2014 – The advent of ride-sharing applications has provoked a small revolution in the taxi industry over the past few months. To meet the challenge of new players, Montreal company Taxi Diamond announced a $1-million modernization plan last week. Do these new technologies represent a risk for the industry, or an opportunity for it to reinvent itself? Could their wide-scale adoption be economically beneficial for everyone?

Montreal, Thursday, November 13, 2014 – The Quebec Taxation Review Committee presided over by Luc Godbout must provide recommendations to the government in December. One significant component of taxation in Quebec—payroll taxes—remains poorly understood by workers, even though the amounts collected are substantial.

Montreal, November 12, 2014 – The MEI is proud to announce the appearance in bookstores today of a booklet containing the transcript of a poignant speech by Mario Vargas Llosa on his intellectual trajectory from Marxism to liberalism. This booklet, entitled My Intellectual Journey, is based on a very moving and fascinating talk Mr. Vargas Llosa gave in Montreal last year at an MEI gala event.

Montreal, Thursday, November 6, 2014 – During a talk he gave last week, Finance Minister Carlos Leitao said that certain health care and educational services could be provided more efficiently if they were managed by private companies and other non-governmental entities. A wave of panic quickly set in, with critics crying out that the profit motive does not serve the public interest. Is this concern justified?

Montreal, Thursday, October 30, 2014 – While more and more resources are devoted to the health care system all across Canada, and while Health Minister Gaétan Barrette is pushing for the adoption of a major reform of the way the Quebec system is organized, waiting lists remain a persistent problem that seriously undermines the quality of life of patients. As part of its health care research program, the MEI has produced a short documentary to shine some light on this situation.

Montreal, Thursday, October 9, 2014 – In the context of the debate over municipal pension plans, the Montreal Economic Institute proposes that we abandon defined benefit plans altogether and move to defined contribution plans, but only in the future, and that we gradually index the retirement age. These two solutions would progressively but sustainably solve the problem of pension plan deficits, contrary to Bill 3.

Montreal, Monday, September 29, 2014 – As a new round of CRTC hearings begins today to determine whether a price ceiling must be imposed on wholesale roaming fees, the MEI is publishing a Viewpoint entitled “Three Myths about Competition in the Canadian Wireless Sector” that calls into question the idea that new interventionist measures must be adopted to encourage competition in this sector.

Montreal, September 25, 2014 – On the occasion of its annual George Lengvari Sr. Lecture Series gala event, the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) awarded the John Dobson Medal for Free Enterprise, a prize created in 2014, to Mr. Jean-Paul Gagné.

Montreal, September 3, 2014 – The “Ice Bucket Challenge” for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that has gone viral on social media these past few weeks has helped the ALS Association raise $100 million to fund research. How will an innovative drug to treat this disease be discovered and developed? What will the public sector and the private sector contribute to this process?

Montreal, August 27th, 2014 – While the sale of gasoline will as of January 1st, 2015 be subject to a carbon market formed solely by Quebec and California, a Léger Marketing poll commissioned by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) shows that nearly half of Quebecers are opposed to this measure once they learn that it could lead to a 3¢ per litre increase in the price of gas, versus 36% who are in favour of it.